Time and You
by AnotherShiningStar
Summary: The Asgardian ship reaches the Earth with Thor and Loki safe. Every Avenger has to cooperate with each other to bring the Mad Titan down. Loki has a secret but where does his allegiance lie? Where does Sif fit into the grand scheme of things? Memories. Passion. Romance. Humour. Who'll survive this version? Sifki. Warfrost. Post Ragnarok. Inifinity war AU. *LOKI DOESN'T DIE*
1. chapter 1

**A/N: So this is my first ever fanfiction and I need all the support I can get to keep going! This is for all the Loki fans out there who want to follow. I will try my best to write the characters as cannonically as possible but please cut me some slack. Constructive Criticism is greatly welcome.**

 **She Sighed**

Sif was sitting on one of the chairs in the balcony of her chambers in the Midgardian Norway skyscraper the Asgardians had accepted as their royal palace. Being a shieldmaiden she had always had the privilege of having accomodations in the castle but she had never taken it until now, until Ragnarok had forced them all to leave their beloved Home and shift to this planet which was itself on a journey of self-destruction.

That doesn't mean she didn't like anything about Midgard, she loved how the sky here was of many shades opposed to Asgard's generic yellow and black at all times. Here sky was orange, blue, pink, grey, black, yellow and every colour you could find on a pallette. She liked the way birds sang here in the morning, she liked the black flat screen jn which you could watch plays anytime you wanted to. It was like watching little men and women perform live. But most of all, she enjoyed how women on this planet were almost free from all obligations she had encountered in Asgard while growing up, at least the ones she had met were.

She had meant to enjoy her free time before she had to go training as per the schedule. With the threat of an Infinity War, (that's what the green Titan woman had called it) approaching, anyone and everyone of any talent were to hone their skills.

She shifted her gaze from the sky (which was a soft eveing orange right now) to the green grounds where everyone of turn was training.

She glanced down at Thor where he was sparring with Valkyrie in the sports arena they were using as training grounds. She did not sigh watching them so close to each other. Which was odd because she always used to sigh. She sighed everytime she saw Thor brooding over Jane Foster. She sighed everytime Lorlei flirted with Haldor until it eventually got him killed, she sighed everytime Thor picked up a girl after a dance ball when he was just a prince. But now, for the first time in years, she saw the man she thought she loved with another woman and didn't internally sigh out of self-pitty and loathing. In fact, her breathing and her heartbeat both were as even as they could be.

Watching her King and her Lady Commander move together, both as skilled as the other in the art of war, moving so swiftly, swords geniusly cutting through the air making swishing sounds, as if it were a well-choreographed dance, she didn't feel the longing she once felt for Thor at all. All she thought was that Valkyrie's skill was commendable and it wouldn't be long before Thor succumbs to her ministrations unless he hits her with a lightening blast, which was against the rules of training.

She knew they were going to be together. Everyone knew they admired each other but themselves. When they fought, or talked or just stared at each other, one could use a needle to pierce the sexual tension. Moreover, her chambers were but a floor below Thor's and almost every evening she'd heard Valkyrie's roars of laughter as she narrated the tales of her adventures as an elite soldier of the Asgardian Crown. That would've been no less than spoken erotica for Thor. _"Why don't they just tell each other already and get it over with? "_ She thought to herself.

It should've hurt her, but surprisingly, she thought, it didn't. And that knowledge was confusing as well as terrifying to her, and not the least bit liberating. She'd had many sleepless nights when Thor was with Jane,so why not now?

So she told herself that although Sif had respected the mortal's courage and intelligence, also her beauty, Sif couldn't quite admit having lost to a fragile and unskilled mortal, but Valkyrie on the other hand, was all Sif had ever wanted to be, she was the hero of the stories she had read growing up, the very reason she had wanted to become a Shieldmaiden, the consolation she gave herself everytime she lost a sparring match and was laughed at for fighting like a girl, a reminder that women can be and ARE the strongest fighters.

So, seeing her king with her idol wasn't as unnerving as she'd expect. It was natural, if anything. Or at least that's what she tried to tell herself. All this effort, simply put, was to remind herself that her lack of resentment for Valkyrie was, in no way connected to a certain raven-haired prisoner she used to visit in the dungeon cells. She also, right here, reminded herself that she used to visit him in the royal palace prison, risking treason, just so that she could get answers out of him for Odin, torture him with her taunts, and somehow hurt Thor for choosing a mortal over her, and not because she felt a sense of empathy for him, because she wanted answers of her own. And the third and the last thing she reminded herself was that Odin was dead because of him, she had not been there for her people when Asgard needed it's Shieldmaiden the most as she was sent for trivial jobs on various realms by him posing as the Allfather, and she was alive because of him when all her friends were dead. She hated Loki of Asgard. And she hated herself for not seeing right through his disguise. Hadn't she wasted enough time with him in the dungeons to know him just that much? Wasn't that the very plan? Or was that a plan or just an excuse?

Her eyes, on their own, glazed over the various avengers training with one-another. The android training with the Maximof girl, Iron Man with the metal arm man, and Insect man with the Bird Man. She had trouble remembering all the fancy names they had given themselves. Smirking at their absurdity her eyes finally settled on that very raven haired psychopath who had suddenly majestically decided to side with the protectors of the very planet he was hell bent on conquering just years ago. How could they have let him? Why was Thor so blind when it came to family? After all he was the reason Odin died, Hela was unleashed and Ragnarok happened! Wasn't it? Why had they let this trickster loose? That selfish cunning monster! Why not just throw him in a prison?

There he was! Training with Agent Rogers and Agent Romanoff, holding himself up just barely against the Super Soldier and Skilled Assasin, but holding himself up nonetheless. She watched as his hair flicked when he blocked a well placed blow from Cap as he used his left leg to attack Widow's torso, the way he smirked at her when she went flying off the ground metres away and slammed herself against Pepper Potts ,(who by the way was again here to yell at Tony Stark for upgrading her make-up box into being a voice controlled mini parlour with hands that would do your make up for you). Both the ladies hit the ground hard, but went completely unnoticed by the busy, sparring Avengers who's fights were heating up.

 _"Mortals are so light "_ , she thought, completely denying Loki the appreciation she'd have bestowed upon anyone else for that quick thinking and swift execution. She reminded herself that he wasn't worth her attention and she didn't mind him at all. But as she saw Cap run to help Pepper up, Sif also saw how Loki approached Widow. With his signature smirk still well placed and his arrogant,suave manner of walking as he sashayed throuh the air, looking all _(handsome?!) "ANYTHING but handsome... pale faced dark Volturi of the Twilight play"_ Sif thought to herself. (She had recently watched the Twilight marathon on HBO that weekend...everyone has a Twilight phase okay? ). _GODS_ she hated him whenever he used to smirk and sashay (which was all the time) .

And when he offered his hand to pick Widow up, and said something to her with that sickly smirk still plastered on his face, and when Widow smirked back at him and begrudgingly took his hand as he pulled her up, when they accidently bumped into each other for a split second because of the misjudgement (or too perfect a judgement) of the pulling force by Loki, when this was followed with a sly smile by both of them, Lady Sif of Asgard, without a soul in the world, including herself, noticing, completely involuntarily, sighed.

 **A/N: So here it was! The first ever chapter of my first ever fic. I hope you liked it. I promise it's going to get a lot more interactive very soon after I established both Loki's and Sif's honest feelings about each other. I will be uploading the second and third chapter tomorrow and the day after and the next one only after I get at least five reviews so that I know that it's worth it. Please be kind to me and come back for more. Patience bears great results!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm back! I can't believe I already made it to 5 reviews. A big Thank you to all my friends and those who supported me. As I said, it means a lot! Here goes the second chapter. I hope you like it! Also, I'm going to be taking a few liberties with Loki's magical capabilities. I know they are mostly related with illusions but I'm going to give him a few other powers and some new limits. The movies haven't properly described his abilities clearly so I'm assuming he has more powers than meets the eye.**

 **Second Most** **Terrifying**

While returning to earth with Thor, Loki he dared not admit to himself, was scared. It wasn't because he was ashamed of what he had done, he always had his reasons, the biggest one being the imminent threat to his life on the hand of the Mad Titan. _"He'll make you long for something as sweet as pain",_ was what the Other had told him, Loki recalled with a shiver running down his spine.

Loki was never one for emotion. But he WAS one for survival. He perfectly knew that Thanos will not spare him mercy when he'll see him. He had broken his promise, and so, his best bet now was to side with his oaf brother and his bunch of puny mortals who he thought did have a certain degree of skill he had never credited them with before. If he were to be completely honest with himself, he almost admired Tony Stark's jabs and comebacks. As for Agent Rogers, he thought the man was a stupid buff who was always high on morals, much like his oaf brother Thor, just more perishable.

Loki, however, most enjoyed his time with Natasha. He knew she hated him and yet she never showed it. She was highly manipulative and she always indulged his needs for a good banter every now and then and seemed to match his every smirk with one of hers. That, for Loki, was a highly comendable quality for a woman...or anyone for that matter.

With time and after much convincing (very very much convincing) on Thor's side most of the Avengers were warming up to his presence. The other day the boy of spiders had even tried to make a conversation with him when both of them were waiting in the hall for their turns in the sparring grounds, and Loki just couldn't have been more repulsed.

 _"So, Mr. uhhhhh Odinson is it? "_ asked Peter.

 _"Yeah, only like, officially."_ Loki replied.

 _"Oh yeah I've heard...with all that adopted stuff huh? That's never cool man"_

 _"Can I help you? "_

 _"No it's just, I'M LIKE THIS HUGE FAN OF YOURS AND SUPERVILLAINS ARE LIKE SO COOL AND MY FRIENDS IN SCHOOL ARE JUST CRAZY FOR YOU"._

Loki looked at him with an expression that cleary read "what on earth (hehe) is wrong with people here.

 _"So... like I was wondering if I could like take a selfie with you... "_

And before Loki could react Peter pulled out his phone and clicked an awkward picture of him and a completely bewildered Loki.

 _"Thanks man I owe you one now! And uhhh will it be cool if you don't mention anything about this to Mr. Stark? Yeah? Thanks bro see you around! and OH YEAH sorry about your dad, I understand"_

Peter said sympathetically keeping his hand on Loki's shoulder and giving him a _"you need to be strong"_ look before retreating and turning around to head out to the training grounds.

And when Loki turned around to see if anyone had seen this embarassing interaction, he saw, none other than, (because fuck your luck Loki, the adopted younger son and the fallen prince! )

DR. STEPHEN STRANGE on the doorstep which lead to the kitchens. His panicked eyes met Strange's judging ones and the fact that this pathetic excuse for a sorcerer, who thought he is better than him, had witnessed the single most awkward conversation Loki had ever had,that too with a little boy, was enoughenough for him to want to turn himself into a bee or something, but Loki wasn't someone to cower and run away or bow down.

He loathed Strange. Even more than spider boy. Mind you it wasn't jealousy, just a general loathing he had for all incompetent wannabees and nothing else, Dr. Stupid Strange wasn't worth his time or attention.

 _"Just what I need. Consolation by stupid midgardian adoloscents with insect powers they got a from science experiment. AND getting bullied by men who like to call themselves "master of mystic arts" ...after performing some teleporting tricks which he could do at what? like? Seven?."_ Loki scoffed as he recalled this embarassing incident even when all Strange had done was stare at him with surprised eyes he WAS however, clearly trying to supress a giggle and trying his best to not voice out the heavily sarcastic description his mind had automatically devised for the situation... good thing it was stopped by Loki's cold challenging stare which clearly said "don't you dare bitch".

But right now Loki was in his chambers, (right next to Thor's) in this Royal Asgardian Palace cum Avengers Head Quarters building, surrounded by his books and away from the tortures of socialising with the Moral Manequinns of Midgard. He was reading and practising as much as he could as magic wasn't allowed while training and he needed to perfect and enhance his magic before the big war started. Defeating Thanos was his only shot at being alive. Well, except... but NO! He had promised himself not to use it until and only until Thanos threatened his own life. His own survival was his only priority...it always had been. And as for his last escapade to Asgard when Thor was fighting their sister Hela, it wasn't because he wanted to save Thor or the Asgardians. It was so that he could gain Thor's favour and get security during the upcoming infinity war. It was just a part of his plan. He didn't care about Thor and he didn't mourn Odin's death. The constant agony in his heart was only for his mother, who was the only person he truly loved. And now, with her dead, he only cared for himself and no one else. That's what he told himself every second of the day. That's what he reminded himself of, what he had to remind himself of.

There was, however just one other thing that was eating him up from the inside : _Sif_. But like every issue he ever had, he had decided to ignore it. Still, he couldn't stop thinking about the way she looked at him everytime their eyes met. The _(beautiful?)_ NO! not beautiful! _"the not that unattractive"_ face, devoid of any emotion but a slight hint of disgust, which he matched with a careless smirk was all he saw at night when he wasn't imagining the cruel tortures Thanos could subject him to if things didn't go as planned. As careless as those smirks were, he did care of what she thought of him. Perhaps, she was the only one besides Thor whose indifference disturbed him. But again, he chose not to admit this to himself. He was, as his mother had once said, _"always so perceptive of everyone but himself"._ Loki also did not care when he a week ago, had matter-of-factly deduced that she was still in love with Thor when he saw her speaking with him in the sparring grounds under the huge parasol used to get temporary rest, and noticed how she placed her palm on his arm when he said something that made her laugh. _"So_ _now he's ALSO the funny one... ofcourse! "_ He had thought to himself.

 _And n_ o, he wasn't staring at her... _obviously!_ Just observing, in general, like he observed everything around... like... nature. And by the way, this little _"observation"_ had resulted in him getting punched by Bucky's metal fist right in the face and eventually falling face down in the grass, losing that sparring session.

When he had looked up he found that hippie Valkyrie laughing at his face and ridiculing him by pointing her finger at him before she was politely reminded by supervisor Maria Hill that those were not training ettiquttes. Valkyrie still left the arena still red-faced and giggling probably thinking about the ways she'd exaggerate the incident when she'll narrate it to Natasha and that archer and then they'll laugh about his lack of war tactics _(how original! "). Loki_ got up...but not before his signature hair flick to watch Valkyrie's retreating back. Bucky had simply left the arena to get the fallen part of his metal arm fixed.

Now, Loki couldn't deny the fact that he had always admired Sif. But that was all to it.

He was sure if he kept a low profile and didn't come in her way, he'll be spared the awkward silences and loathsome stares which were bound to be present provided her late night cell visits and him sending her out on trivial missions to keep her from finding out that he was the impersonating as Odin when he was ruling. It all had been so long ago but they had never gotten a chance to talk about it and he wasn't looking forward to it. He knew, no matter how much he tried not that he was willing to, Sif would never ever forgive him. Which was completely fine as long as he didn't see her for more than 2 seconds... and he had managed this far from that happening. It's not like he was scared of her or something... he just... didn't like drama.

Closing his books now, he pulled out the sheet of tomorrow's sparring schedule to see who he was up against. Being the master tactician he was, he always prepared for his fights well in advance by already devising offences, defenses and counter-attacks pertaining to his opponent's strengths and weaknesses. And (because,as always, fuck your luck Loki, the adopted and the fallen prince! )

, the name next to his own was, you guessed it!

11 AM-1 PM

ARENA-2

LOKI ODINSON - WARRIOR SIF

(ASGARDIAN) (ASGARDIAN)

 _"Dammit"_ He said.

And suddenly, the prospect of facing Thanos was the second most terrifying thing in his life.

 **A/N: So there you go! This one was from Loki's POV. What follows will be some Sif /Loki interactions (finally) and some more *treat treat* Avengers/Loki interactions. And I promise to update as soon as I can. Also, the story will be light in nature mostly but at points it'll take some dark turns (what with IW approaching). Also, I'll try to make this as canonical as possible and it'll be consistent with the events of the IW more or less.** **Lastly, TYSM for the reviews again! Keep them coming.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey everyone! I'm back. First of all I'd like to thank all of you for your reviews. I can't express my happiness over them. Thank you SnowGlobeQueen, She-who-lack-jamz, BacchikoiBABY21, crimson.blood.witch and all the others who reviewed.**

 **Now about the chapter, this one is full of drama and both Loki's and Sif's emotions are tested. Also, we knkw how Sif has never really been friends with other women and no girl's life is complete without girl love so I'm gonna give her some avenger gal pals. Also, special shoutouts to my girlfriends theperpetualnisfit and highfunctioningpotter for being the best mates one could ask for. Also, this chapter is slightly longer than others and I hope that's fine. Now on with the story...**

 **Of swords and words**

Sif simply could not have been more pleased with the choice for her contendor. Ever since she had left home, she had felt somewhat invisible. Unwanted. As if, she could be out of the story of this epic battle and it wouldn't make a difference. And the worst thing was, she felt she was the only one who had no importance in thr bigger narrative. No glory awaiting her in the big battle. No feasts to celebrate her victories to follow. After all, she was just an Asgardian with a sword. And not a king like Thor or legend like Valkyrie, just another civillian.

Although Thor already had secured her the position of the royal Shieldmaiden of Asgard, she knew it'd be years before Asgard returns to it's former glory. Till then, she was just another soldier of the Avenger's Initiative, but never quite an avenger herself.

So, she mostly prefered soltitude over company, even Thor's who according to her was much changed now. He was no more the boy she loved. He was a king now. Much more responsible and selfless. But today she'll have her way. She thought, finally, she'd have a vent for all her frustration over the past events. And most of all, the disgust, the anger, the hate and the (jealousy?) she felt towards the slimiest snake of all the nine realms, Loki.

So, at sharp 10:55 AM, Sif put her armour on and left the personal training room, or what the midgardians refered to as "gym". She took the stairs all the way down to the hall, stepped out in the sparring grounds and made her way to the sparring arena 2. Loki was already standing there with regulator Maria Hill. The air was filled with the sounds of metals and shields clanking together from various other arenas. And all the heat that the power blasts and energy reactors were generating was enough to overpower the pleasant Norway weather.

 _"My Lady"_ , Loki greeted in customary Asgardian greeting, looking bored, but with a slight hint of scepticism in his eyes.

Sif half-grinned from the corner of her left lip in response. As if threatening him. Loki smirked.

 _"Agent Hill. Shall we start? "_ , Sif nodded at Maria Hill.

Maria Hill went and stood at the edge of the rectangular arena before starting the match:

 _"Alright! Both the contendors will be fighting with one sword in their fighting hand. The minute a person is disarmed, or yields, the sparring session ends. Use of any means of combat other than what's stated will result in immediate termination and a possible suspension from the grounds. A reminder: this is only a practise, we are not enemies, we stand together. In both glory and in defeat. Now, GO"_ And so it started.

Both Loki and Sif advanced at each other with their swords. Sif attacked first, Loki easily blocked it with his left arm plate and kicked Sif in the gut. He then aimed for her sword meaning to disarm her. But Sif was too experienced a warrior to not have anticipated this. Before Loki's sword could reach Sif's, Sif ducked with her leg strecthed out and did a 180 degree sweep on the ground till it met Loki's feet knocking him down. Loki fell on his back and just barely retained his sword in his hand. While Sif got up Loki threw his fists behind and pushed himself off the ground with a jump. There was an eye contact of half a minute while they both caught their breath anticipating the other's move. And then they charged at each other again, this time with equal vigour. Both meaning to attack. Both wanting more than anything, to win. It almost looked impossible for anyone of them to do so. They both complemented each other's fighting style perfectly and hence none was able to get an upper hand. While Sif was fiery and and vigorous Loki was cold and calculative. So their swords clanked, their feet kicked, their arms blocked several times. But all their moves resulted in a stalemate. But Sif had a leverage. Vengeance. Sif demanded vengeance from Loki most of all. He was the reason Asgard perished. He was the reason Odin and Frigga died. He was the reason Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun died. And he was the reason she couldn't die with them. It was all HIS fault. Her life had become so meaningless because of HIM. And when that thought entered her head, it persisted. So she delivered the final blow. Her sword met Loki's. And both of them held their arms in front of their chests. Their blades making an acute angle with each other. That is when Sif, taking advantage of her offensive position, hit Loki's sword hand with her knee harder than ever. Loki lost the grip of his sword, not having expected that brilliant move. Before he could catch it in the air, Sif elbowed his face with her own sword hand and Loki fell back, 2 metres aways from where his sword fell on the ground. And just like that, Loki lost. But that wasn't it for Sif. She got up and dropped her sword on the ground. Then she ran towards Loki and kicked his stomach. Loki groaned as she straddled him and punched his face. Hard. Really Hard. Her right fist met his face once again and with equal vigour. Then again. Then again. Then again.But she didn't stop and kept punching Loki rhythymically. Not even when his lip punctured. Not even when his cheek started bruising blue. She punched and punched. As if he were a half-deflated punching bag.

 _"STOP! LADY SIF **STOP**! I SAID **STOP**! NOW! OR YOU'LL KILL HIM. STOP RIGHT NOW OR YOU **WILL** FACE SUSPENSION FROM THE GROUNDS"_ Sif could hear the screeches of Maria Hill iin her ears but she didn't stop. All she could think of was Asgard, Odin, Frigga and her friends. And all that this man had cost her. All that she had lost. And something else she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was like this blood lust had controlled her. She wanted to stop but she couldn't. She wasn't going to stop.

Hearing Maria Hill shrieking and threatening someone of suspension, combatants of the two adjacent arenas 1 and 3, which perchance happened to be Thor, Valkyrie, Natasha and Clint left their training and came out to see what's wrong. What they found was a smothered Loki being beaten up by a very furious "what was her name? Thor's lady friend?" "Sif! " , bashing Loki up as they watched her, aghast. Even Valkyrie was stunned and witnessed the whole thing with a knitted eyebrow. Thor desperately called out Sif's name urging her to stop.

 _"THIS IS REGULATOR 03. I NEED IMMEDIATE SECURITY BACKUP HERE. ONE OF THE COMBATANTS HAS TURNED ROGUE. "_ Maria Hill was shouting holding at her earpiece.

But backup wasn't needed. For the moment Sif paused, her hand suspended in the air, to take look at Thor for a fleeting second. Loki conjured a silver dagger in his right palm and stabbed Sif's side with it. Right below her rib cage. She winced in pain as he flipped her from over him and they both laid side by side in the mud and grass. Maria made to help Loki up and called out for medical aid for both of them. As Sif made to stand up Maria Hill towered over her.

 _"WHAT the hell was that? "_ she asked.

 _"With all the due respect to you Agent Hill, I don't answer to you. "_ Sif replied, not being in control of herself.

 _"Well then, Lady Sif, on the grounds of defiance of rule, unwarranted violence and hurting a fellow soldier, I suspend you from all your duties and prohibit your entrance in the training grounds for as long as SHIELD deems fit. You'll be informed shortly of the duration of your suspension."_

 _"You know you can't do that? I'm the shieldmaiden of the Asgardian Royal Palace."_

 _"THIS ISN'T THE ASGARDIAN ROYAL PALACE until the upcoming war is over. This is the Avengers Headquarters which is being sponsored by the Wakandan republic and Stark Industries and being run by SHIELD. And I, am the Vice President of SHIELD. So, if a need arises, I can and I will suspend anyone. Even your dear king Thor."_

And with that, Maria Hill marched furiously out of the grounds while Loki and Sif were escorted by the on call paramedics to the medical clinic.

Scene/Change

Thor was confused. To say the least. After witnessing what he just had he didn't know what to think.

 _"Boy they have a lot to talk about"_ he heard Valkyrie remark.

 _"About what?"_ He asked.

 _"I don't know. They have so much of sexual tension amd heat going on there definitely is a past."_

 _"Sexual tension? Not possible."_ Thor replied disbelievingly. He was met with Valkyrie's very own "bitch please it's obvious to everyone else" look.

 _"You know nothing your majesty. Start seeing with your... eye open"_ She remarked in her soft and feminine voice which no one used to expect having newly met her.

 _"I know pain and enstragement whenwhen I see it. And that's What Lady Sif is experiencing right now."_ she continued.

 _"Do you think I should go talk to her? "_ asked Thor chosing to overlook Valyrie's stupid juvenile joke in favour of the more serious discourse at hand.

 _"You could but, I think I want to try. I might have more experience here than you do. "_ Valkyrie said looking at the now deserted sparring ground with unseeing eyes.

 _"Yeah you might as well"_

 _"And we could deal with that Sif-Lackey thing later"_

 _"IT'S LOKI. And there is no "thing". "_ (Haha Quotesception)

 _"You wanna bet? "_ She asked with a huge grin. Her mood suddenly changing from sullen and nostalgic to cheerful.

 _"I bet. "_ Thor grinned back. And what a grin it was.

Scene/Change

Loki stood at the railing of the long corridors of the archaic midgardian building. It's architecture was, he onlonly now noticed, surprisingly similar to the palace in which he had grown up. His palms were placed on the blunt, curved edges of the waist-high railing as he peered into the dark night sky. He thought, Midgardian night sky was beautiful. Which was unlike the thoughts he usually entertained. But after today's ordeal, he was willing to be easy on himself. Sif had humiliated him and thrashed him like a ragdoll. And to say that he was furious and enraged would've been a fierce understatement. But he'll plan his next move later, if at all. Tonight, he had simply decided to lay low. It may have been a result of the Pain-killing sedatives he was on, or all the wine he had consumed in the evening, but today he just wanted to calm down and relax. He could think about his imminent threat to life and how to deal with this crazy version of Sif later. But when did Loki and luck ever go hand in hand. His luck advanced upon him once again, and this time HE was ready.

 _"If it isn't my fallen prince"_ , Sif appeared from the shadows around the corner of the long corridor.

 _"My Prince."_ she nodded in mock greeting.

 _"Good job at veiling your bruises under illusions. That doesn't mean they aren't there."_

It was Loki's turn to meet her formal greetings with a menacing half grin. He was ready this time.

 _"Good evening, My Lady Sif. Or as apt for the siultuation shall I say, How is the Rejected Hag of Asgard faring nowadays."_ Blood in Sif's veins started boiling once again. But she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of getting on to her nerves.

 _"So how does it feel? Losing? How does it feel losing every fight you've been in to every other man and woman? Asgard, Newyork, and today you couldn't even hold yourself up against a "rejected hag". As your silvertongue puts it."_ Sif spat at him with all the venom she could conjure.

Loki turned around and his red lips spread across his pale face. He smirked with a terrifying monstrous savageness in his eyes.

 _"And how does it feel to you? Losing? How does it feel losing every man you ever loved to another woman? Lorelei, Jane, and now what chance do you have against Valkyrie? "._ Loki retorted. And every word stabbed. Not because she was still hurting over Haldor or Thor. But because he was right. She had lost at love. Every. Single. Time. But she wasn't ready to back down as yet.

Seeing the hurt in her eyes for a second, Loki let his guard down. Fearing he had gone too far but not exactly knowing what it was he feared.

 _"And how does it feel being a killer? Knowing that you killed hundreds of innocents, friends, both your fathers and your only mother? "_ Sif blurted unable to stop herself.

Something snapped within Loki, his cool facade dropped, his deathly smirk faded and his eyebrows knitted together. He lifted his chin and looked down at Sif with nothing but pure pain and guilt in his eyes. He then moved past her and walked away. Sif turned around to watch his retreating back. She knew she had now crossed a line. She saw in his face a reality she wasn't ready to face. A reality that invalidated all her hatred for him, all her disgust for him. The reality that he wasn't what he had done or had been somehow made to do. That inside he was still Loki the trickster and nothing more. That he wasn't really the monstermonster she had told him he was. Sif made to speak but stopped. Sif made to reach her hand out to stop him but stopped. Now Sif, dare she admit it to herself, was sorry. She hadn't expected him to not retort. And her instinct wasn't entirely inaccurate.

Just before turning around the corner Loki stopped. Turning to face Sif with a murderous glint in his eyes and crushing his teeth together. He approached her with large strides.

 _"Was that supposed to hurt me? Do you think I don't realise the monster I am? That I don't know who I've killed? For your knowledge, good Lady Sif, I am aware and I. Don't. Care."_ Now he was so close to Sif that she debated turning around and running away. This phase of Loki was menacing, threatening.

 _"But you know what? I don't think that's the reason you've turned into a psychopathic blood thirsty harriden. I think that's because you see how you don't matter anymore. You see that despite what I've done. Who I've killed. Asgardians remember and respect me more than they do you. After all I saved them from Ragnarok while you were in another realm. Safe and sunny."_ At this, Sif made to slap him. It hurt. It was true. And it was HIS fault. So she couldn't control her hand as it flew up to make contact with Loki's perfect porcelain cheek.

This time, having expected it, Loki easily caught it mid air and turned Sif around. He swiftly trapped both her hands behind her in the long slender fingers of his left hand and conjuring a silver dagger in his right one, pressed it against Sif's throat. Just barely not cutting into her skin. He had had enough for the night. Enough from her.

He brougth his lips close to Sif's left ear and whispered,

 _"Here's the thing. No matter how much you try, how much you want it. You'll never be good enough for him, or any man for that matter. And I know how not being good enough, EVER does to you. So here's an advice, spare yourself some discomfort and accept what it is. And if you ever as much tried to touch me in a way of harm again, I'll kill you. You know I can. And it'll only be self defense. Haldor left you for an enchantress, Thor didn't even consider you over a mortal woman. There is a reason why. Just remember. Never. Good. Enough."_ And then he let go of her. And without anothet word, left. Sif knew if she turned around to look at him she'll again physically attack him, and she couldn't afford to be banished from the headquarters. Not when she didn't even know what she did and didn't want. She'd just had to accept defeat this time. One battle she had won. One battle he had won. That one was of swords. Which happened to be her weapon of choice. But this one, was of words, which also happened to be Loki's weapon of choice.

 **A/N: so there you go! This was intense huh? Too much violence? I know. Both Loki and Sif are fighting mental battles of their own and while I don't condone unwarranted violence, Sif's going through a sort of emotional breakdown right now. That doesn't justify her behaviour but it certainly explains it. As for Loki, you know he doesn't bear things lying down. They both behaved immaturely in this one but please forgive my babies they're under a lot of duress. They will make amends in future.Anyhow, I promise next chapter will be lighter. I'll give you the interactions and friendships I've promised. Also, I'll be updating every three days so keep coming back for more.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Warning: This is going to be a long author's note. I apologise for it. But bear with me.**

 **I just can't believe the kind of response I've been getting. I had never imagined it. All of you are so kind. A special thanks to SaltyCandy Lost frost Wolf and FlareOfTheMidnightPanther for leaving such an encouraging review.**

 **As I said before, I will take liberties with Loki's magic. I'll give it a source, some more powers and limits. This and the upcoming chapters will all have serious undertones and will mostly be dramatic. After all, they are preparing for the greatest wars of all times. Also, since we didn't really see the character of Valkyrie apart from her drunkard warrior persona, I'm going to make her kind, friendly and as someone who likes to take control of the people around her. As for Thanos, since we know absolutely nothing about him and his reasons and there is still a lot of time left till IW, I'll try to make him as flexible as possible so that I can conform my description to the movie description later. Still, I can't guarantee a fully canonical Thanos.**

 **Tragedies, Strategies** **and Proximity**

Ever since Sif had been banned from the training grounds, she had been confined to her chambers. But it wasn't the chambers that were getting on her nerves. It was Loki's words. What he said. What he meant. And what part of it was true. That was, all of it. Having trained in the indoor gym for days, Sif needed air. She was used to training in the green-gold pastures of Asgard with real warriors, not machines.

But Sif knew she had to go somewhere she could train under the clear sky. And two days later, she found just the place. It had been before her eyes all along. If only she bothered to look out her bedroom window more often. It was going to be Peter Parker's practice arena. She'll be visiting in the dead of the night. It was right behind the HQs. It wasn't a training ground inside the premises so she thought she wouldn't be breaking any rules either. And the space was ample. The ground stretched for almost a mile.

Sif wondered why he was the one receiving such special privileges…after all he was just a child, an annoying one at that. So what if his father was sponsoring everything? (Yes she thought Peter was Tony's son).

This also led her to question the fact that why exactly was Peter getting a new suit upgrade every other day but Agent Barton was still running armour less shooting pointy sticks at villains she heard Loki had stopped with his bare hands in New York. Loki.

She stopped herself right there, tonight was hers and she would not upset herself by thinking about Loki. Not at all. She thought, she would never understand mortals anyway. And why did she care? She wanted a place to train and she had one! If anything, she was thankful for the nepotism.

Sif reached under her bed to retrieve a silver scabbard with engravings of horses, and warriors on it. It was the scene of her first ever battle. Heimdall had gifted her this ancient Claymore sword in this silver scabbard. It was that one time she felt like she even had a brother.

She had called it Lady Moon Cleaver and hadn't parted with it ever since. She had been her only companion in so many tragedies so why not now? She pulled the sword out grazing at the the moon dust blade.

 _"How doth My Lady Claymore? It's been a long long time."_ she asked her beloved sword caressing the sword's brass grip and silver steel. She smiled at her as one does at an old friend.

Her armour was long gone and her hair was no longer in the confines of a ponytail. She wore highly elastic full-length black leather slaxs and a sleeveless red middy which reached mid thighs.

First, she threw her Moon Cleaver out of the window, which fell down with a loud thud. She was second to go. She pulled out a long rope she had one morning stolen from Stark's warehouse from her cupboard. Expertly knotted the end of it to her window pane and slid to the end of it. Once on the floor, she looked around. Quite pleased with herself.

Scene/Change

"2996", "2997", "2998", she mentally counted while pulling herself up two-thousand nine-hundred and ninety-eighth time. She had found a salmon ladder in the arena and doubled it up as a pull up bar. She was in the mood of working every muscle she could find in her body.(Not every muscle of course if you know what I mean hehe ). Having completed the 3000th pull up, Sif went on to do push ups, then crunches, and all the exercises ever known to mankind before finally... oh dammit! she forgot to bring her sword along today. And she was exhausted anyway. And so, she decided to retire for the night only to come back the next night, the next, and all the nights ahead. Sif found solace here, like she had met an old friend, she had met herself, again. And at end of one of these very nights, on a fateful break of dawn, Loki looked out his chamber window to see a very flustered Sif swinging the famed Moon Cleaver in the air as if she was Sif's own limb. She hadn't changed at all. He watched her as she bounced about in the field, air brushing the lose hair off her face. He followed her every action, trying to predict her next move, he started observing each eye movement, each breath, each gasp. And once he started, he could not stop.

Scene/Change

Loki was summoned to the central building of the Head Quarters to office number 03 . He was meant to report at sharp 5 PM. He also hadn't recieved any training schedules this week either. Which gave him a lot of time to practise his magic and so he didn't complain. On the day of schedule, he left his chambers at 4:55, entered the central building and made his way up the white stairs through the hardwood floor of the corridor and found Office 03 at the end of the corridor. Before he knocked on the door the door opened. Maria Hill nodded at him only to move aside for him to see the Director Nick Fury sitting in front of a long high-table. He had one palm of his hand on the other strectched out in front of the high table.

 _Welcome to the Avengers official strategy team. Have a seat."_

 _"Strategy team. This couldn't go well in anyway ."_ Loki thought, still confused.

Loki suspiciously approached the table and noticed from the corner of his eye that Natasha Romanoff, Princess Shuri of Wakanda, Dr. Stupid Strange (damn that Nick Fury) and the red android Vision were sitting on either sides of the table. He took the empty seat next to Nato.

 _"Soldiers. You sit here at a very special position. We have selected you all for your knowledge of alien psychology, war tactics and of course magic."_ Fury finished by nodding at Strange. Loki frowned at this. If anyone here had knowledge of magic, it was him. He glared at Strange as he sat oppositte him with a smug expression, elbows on the table and fingers pressed together forming a temple. Loki narrowed his eyes at him. Strange rolled his.

 _"Now let's see if we have a representative from all sections. We've got Romanoff from the Original Avengers. We have Princess Shuri from Wakanda. Loki...of Asgard."_ Fury said taking pauses at apt moments, looking Loki in the eye while imitating his words when he first met him. Loki looked bored. That wasn't what got to his nerves, what he said next did.

 _"And we have Dr. Stephen Strange as a representative of sorcerors of... ."_

 _"HAH!",_ Loki scoffed aloud before the Director could complete.

 _"May I offer you a cough Syrup? "_ Strange asked sarcastically.

 _"Haven't your worn out books taught you that Asgardians don't get these pathtic midgardian diseases? "_

 _"Haven't your maesters on Asgard taught you how to recognise sarcasm? "_

Loki's eyes narrowed further. Maria Hill made to intervene but Nato stopped her with the movement of her eyes. She had a smug grin on her face. Shuri did too. So did Nick Fury. Vision just blinked at both of them. Most of them were enjoying this.

 _"You're just so proud of your little hoola hoops you jump in and out of don't you? "_ Loki retorted.

Loki's eyes were so narrowed right now that he did not notice how, of it's own accord, the right end of Dr. Strange's cloak rose and swiftly slapped Loki left cheek. The impact of the slap left Loki stunned and humiliated.

 _"That STUPID THING! You think I can't charm my clothes to hit you? What are you like a century old to be doing such childish tricks? "_ Loki babbled as he tried to catch hold of the Cloak's free end and failing everytime.

 _"I apologise. My cloak isn't as good as hiding annoyance as the rest of the people in this room are"_ Strange said as Loki was shoved back in his seat by an unknown force of magic. He narrowed his eyes again.

" _At least my magic comes from my skill...not some jewellery."_ Loki finally said with a smug expression.

Just then, a hairy hand rose up from below the table to the right of Strange and banged the table hard, hysterical laughing immediately followed. Whoever he was, he laughed as if a hybrid of a raccoon and horse was high on heroin and coughing for his life. Shuri, who was since long trying to control herself burst into laughter too. Natasha looked down the entire time and laughed as softly as she could. Dr. Strange remained calm as ever and to Loki had had enough.

 _"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Jewellery AHAHAHAHA AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA you got HAHAHAHA Strange got roasted"_ the voice behind the hairy hand said as a the creature raised himself above and stood on the chair to become visible to all.

Still confused, Loki asked,

 _"What in the nine realms is this Raccoon..."_

 _"I AM NOT A RACCOON... wait, did you say raccoon? Oh MAN that's right HAHAHHAHA"_

Rocket broke into another fit of uncontrolled laughter.

Loki gave Nick Fury a "what on the nine realms look".

 _"There was no other representative of the Guardians available so... "_ Nick Fury said watching a still very amused Rocket with a terrified expression. Loki watched Rocket opened mouthed while Strange maintained his disposition.

Rocket had no plans of stopping just yet.

 _"Hey man! (he adressed Loki) you just (he shut his eyes for 3 second to giggle) got EVEN with_ _STEPHEN"_.

And as he said the word "Stephen" he made to pat Dr. Strange on his shoulder, sadly, he patted a little too hard and Strange fell back with his chair. Good thing that before his head made contack with the floor the cloak spread itself out around his head and just barely saved him.

Loki couldn't control himself and started looking in another direction to supress a giggle.

Shuri instinctively whipped her phone out and snapped Dr. Strange's laid out look. She captioned it "the floor is bargain" and snapchatted it to Peter and Ned at once. Strange now, was some good meme material.

As the cloak lifted Strange to an upright position, Natasha, still supressing a giggle lifted Strange's chair up. Rocket was now looking at Strange with wide mopey eyes.

Strange thought he was sorry and wanted to aplogise. So he looked at him expectantly. He would give him forgiveness if he asked for it.

With want and desire in his eyes, Rocket as for it...

 _"Is that cloak saleable?"_

Dr. Strange looked at Rocket with disbelieving eyes.

 _"No."_

 _"Then I'm gonna steal it."_

Strange frowned this time.

 _"Gentlemen Please_ _, you all are the best minds in the universe. Shall we start or not? "_

Everyone present there nodded. Loki wondered why he was here and nlt Heimdall. As good a tactician as he was, Heimdall knew and saw far more than Loki. He should soon find out why.

 _"So has it got a name? The strategy team? "_

 _"Oh of course. It's called... (Nick Fury took a dramatic pause) **The Strategists**. "_

Everyone looked at Fury furiously.

 _"What? We ain't got no time to invent fancy names. We're not poets. Now get to work. Pool your resources. And come up with a plan, a back up plan, and a back up plan for that back up plan. Because we haven't got any. Agent Coulson will be joining you all in the next meeting as a representative of SHIELD."_

A weird sense of dread filled Loki's heart. Wasn't he the one Loki had killed? He again questioned the point of his existence in this circle. How could they trust him after all this time? How were they so sure that he wasn't doubling as Thanos' agent this whole time? Were these people, who had alone maged to defeat him and the Chittauri, that gullible? He again thought he'd soon find that out.

 _"That'll be all for today. We'll have the next meeting onon saturday with Agent Coulson present. It's agenda will be 'Our Resources' and Agent Hill will preside over it. Any questions? Good. You're all free to go now."_

And each of the Strategists left the hall having found or lost at least something.

Scene/Change

It was 4 in the morning and Sif was training in the her arena. She had begun to call it hers now. As she swung her sword at the various logs of woods she had placed all around her, she heard a voice.

"You remind me of my fellow soldiers. "

Sif stopped to see Valkyrie approaching her. She had a beer bottle in one hand and swayed as she approached Sif.

"Lady Commander" Sif acknowledged her presence slightly bowing her head down in respect.

"Lady Sif", Valkyrie nodded back.

"May I help you? "

"No I just came out for some fresh air and also I thought I could use your company. "

Valkyrie sat on the flat top of one of the logs Sif had beheaded. And gestured for Sif to sit on another one in front of it.

Sif obliged, it had been days since she talked to another living soul except for room service and she didn't mind the prooximity of a decent being. Much less the company of her childhood idol.

 _"Do you want some?"_

 _"No my Lady. But thank you for the offer."_

None of them spoke a word after that. But just sat in silence. Valkyrie drinking and Sif gazing at the stars and Valkyrie, and at the stars again. This went on for 20 minutes.

With the first ray of the sun, Sif courtesied to Valkyrie and made her way

to her chambers with a weird sense of fulfilment and warmth. She discovered what positve effects peaceful proximity could do to the mind. And after a long winter, Sif went to bed, not coldly indifferent but happy, cosy and warm.

 **A/N: So there you go. I know nothing much of significance happened in this chapter but it was important because it sets basically everything for the next one. I apologise that it couldn't be more interesting. I originally meant for it to have some more Valkyrie/Sif dynamic but the chapter started exceeding my normal word limit. Believe me, Valkyrie/Sif dynamic is quite important to the fic. It's also a metaphor for the help people battling loneliness and depression can use if others just make the littlest of efforts. So please, no flames for it.I promise I'll upload the next chapter very soon. Give me three days tops (update:give a me week eh?). I again thank you for all the reviews. Please keep them coming. You all really are very kind.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hi everyone! It's been so long since I last updated. I know I said a week but I still feel bad and apologize for taking so long. This chapter is going to have a lot of dramatic interactions I guess. Sorry if you find them cringe I'm quite naïve at this. The plot will progress at a much faster pace now and although our focus will still be on Loki and Sif, I want their story to be realistic. This chapter is going to be longer than usual. So if you can't finish it in one go, finish it in parts but please read it whole. Also, the next chapter will be up in less than three days so keep yourself updated.**

 **As I said before, I will continue this story even after IW releases but it'll end before Avengers 4. Anyhow, I'll try to keep it as canonical as I can but since I have no idea what'll happen in IW it may end up differing a lot from the movie. I hope that's okay.**

 **Now about the chapter. Most of Sif's backstory has been portrayed in Marvel's Agents of Shield. For those who don't know, here's a quick summary: in MCU before she was in love with Thor, Sif was very much romantically involved with Haldor who left her for a sorceress Lorelei and eventually died.**

 **Now let's dive right in.**

 **The Batte Cry**

The sound of not one, but two swords clanking now filled Sif's training arena almost every second night now. Valkyrie used to join Sif some two hours before dawn. Sometimes they just talked about Asgard. About how The Valkyrie's had been reduced to a legend and how difficult it was for Sif to become a warrior. Sometimes they talked about the future. About how after the war they could work together to restore the women's position in the Asgardian armed forces. Sometimes they sparred together. And no matter how intoxicated Valkyrie used to be, she always emerged as the winner. It wasn't just her skills, Sif realized, that she also surpassed her in brute force. But Sif didn't mind as long as she got to learn. She did however mind the conversation which took place the previous night. When Val had asked her questions she didn't know existed:

" _So Lady Sif, how many more bottles of rum will I have to consume before you start telling me about the thing between you and Lacky?"_

" _There is no thing. Where did you get that from?"_ Sif replied. And was she…..blushing?

" _First you beat him up like a rag doll and then you blush at the mention of his name. Seriously what's the story?"_

" _The story is that he has done horrible things and that although everyone has forgotten that he is a villain, I have not."_

Val got silent for a while. Weighing her next words. Unsure of this will make her sound vulnerable and unsure if she'll mind if it did. She found out that it wouldn't.

" _You know, Sif. As someone who has lost…..people to war, I'm not a huge believer of taking those who we care for 'for granted'. "_ Val confessed without making eye contact. Staring into the darkness. She slightly shook her head for a second before saying:

" _Now I don't really know what Loki had done. But as much as I've seen of him, is that however annoying and pathetic he is, he staked his life for Asgard during Ragnarok by returning to Asgard. That is not an office for a villain I think. And judging by the way you look at him, you don't think so either."_

Sif didn't know what to say to Val's sudden moment of honesty.

" _You never talk about what happened."_

" _There is nothing to talk about. It's past. A millennium long one. And I'm still trying to escape it."_ Val said eyeing her bottle of rum.

" _I have a sparring match today. And you I recall have your suspension review tomorrow. Both of us should go get some rest. "Valkyrie_ said as she curtsied to Sif.

" _Lady Sif."_

" _Lady Commander."_

Valkyrie made to leave before stopping to turn around and say,

" _It's Brunnhhilde"_ she said with a soft smile looking briefly at Sif and then straight ahead into nothing. As if she were reminding it to her own self. She slightly shook her head again before leaving.

And left leaving behind a very confused Sif. With a hint of despair and guilt in her eyes. For what? She didn't know it either.

SCENE/CHANGE

" _FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! The idea of using the infinity stones as weapons is PREPOSTEROUS! Does no one remember Ultron?"_ Strange asked incredibly irritated.

The debate that whether they should use the infinity stones they had as weapons was heating up in this meeting of the strategy team. To Loki's relief, Agent Coulson hadn't joined the meeting this week either.

" _Try to see reason here. You have already used the time stone before. I have used the mind stone which now rests on his forehead. They are the only leverage we have got. We have three and he has none…yet."_

" _Using the time stone has severe consequences. Consequences that even I don't know or can imagine i."_

" _They aren't safe. We would not be able to control them."_ Vision said touching the yellow stone on his forehead. _"I don't even know what I am with this."_

" _We have a bloody Celestial on the team who held it in his bare hands and lived of course with some precautions we can control them."_ Loki said, agitated and impatient.

" _I am the only one who has dealt with Thanos. He is no fool. He'd try to get hold of the stones as soon as he can. I'm sure Lady Gamora will agree with me on this."_ Loki said looking at Rocket before ending his sentence.

" _But we shouldn't toy with something we don't understand unless it's the only option. And I believe we still have options.",_ Strange said.

" _Alright, since there is a lot difference in opinions, we shall have a vote."_ Maria Hill finally intervened.

One by one, Vision and Strange voted against using the stones. Natasha, too on the behalf on the original avengers voted no, although she did say that she personally felt the team could do better using them than just defending them. Shuri however, voted in favour of the motion as she felt weaponry could advance a great deal if the Wakandan scientist were allowed to study and use them. Finally, everyone looked at Rocket for his opinion, expecting a joke or a witty retort. This they didn't expect.

" _I already lost a very dear friend because of one stupid stone. It isn't happening again."_

And like that. Loki's plan of retrieving the two known infinity stones from their last known positions Knowhere and Xandar and using them as weapons was thrown into the trash. It was concluded finally that the Nova Corps and the Collector will very well guard the orb and aether as they already were while the Avengers will focus on saving the earth. And that it was best to leave something of which so little was known to itself.

SCENE/CHANGE

Almost every night now, Loki used to observe Sif train in the grounds. Today, so deep into the night, and particularly grumpy about the fact that his suggestion was treated like it came from a child, Loki watched Sif do the millionth pull-up… or so it seemed to him.

Sif then got down to acquire a plank position with her palms pressed to the ground below her chests for practicing push-ups. But she didn't get on with it.

Loki observed how a ring on her finger caught Sif's eyes. She stared at it for some seconds before breaking her plank position and fingering it. A ring in the left hand. Must be the one Haldor gave her. Why hadn't she still gotten rid of it? Loki thought.

He saw Sif staring at it with soft, sad eyes. (At least what he could make out from such a height)

This time, Loki's heart filled with guilt for what he had said to her.

What she had said was true. He was indeed a killer. A monster. But she was nowhere near never being good enough. He dared not admit to himself….or her, that once he thought, once when he hadn't turned into a killer, once when he was young and innocent, that he thought that she was a little too good for him…or everyone. He dared not admit that to himself even now.

Loki was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't hear when Thor entered his room through the open door and approached him. Being a king meant working through nights. Today luckily Thor had found himself some leisure time and came to invite Loki to an important event.

Thor found Loki still. Facing the window with his hands at his back. From a distance, Thor followed Loki's vision through the window to see what had captivated Loki's attention so much. And when he saw what he saw, Thor had a small epiphany. _"oh…."_ He thought as he realized something. Which he decided was best to keep to himself for now.

" _Brother"_

Loki turned.

" _I was hoping you would join me for breakfast the day after tomorrow. We have a small feast to celebrate the Victory festival. Now I know we can't have what we had in Asgard but it's an effort on our part to continue our traditions here. All Asgardians would be there and would want to see their favourite Prince."_ Said Thor.

" _Of course. It'll be an honour to dine with the King."_ Loki said mocking. But his smile showed he meant to malice by that when it reached his eyes.

Thor's pearl blue eyes twinkled as he turned and left.

SCENE/CHANGE

Sif was summoned to the Vice President's office for her suspension review a whole month after she was barred from the grounds. She begrudgingly admitted that it was a blessing in disguise. Back then she was hurting but now she had become more evolved emotionally and although she was still as confused as ever, at least now she wasn't confused AND frustrated.

She gently knocked on reaching the office on the top most floor of the main building and entered. She found Maria Hill looking through the large human sized window at the city shops that started beyond Sif's secret training arena. Maria turned when she heard Sif enter.

" _Lady Sif. Welcome. I called you to inform you that the duration of your suspension can end now. That is if you ensure SHIELD that you will not be repeating your unprofessional behaviour in future. "_

" _I ensure you that Agent Hill. On my honour as a warrior."_

Hill smiled and retrieved some papers from the drawer and signed them.

" _Alright so, welcome back. When will you like to join the training again? Tomorrow? The next week?"_

" _Actually I was thinking of laying low for a while. Of course if the management is not okay with that I'm bound by duty to train. But I feel I could use some more time in figuring out…things. This month of reflection helped me a great deal. I must say I'm grateful for that."_

" _Oh yes we respect that. Come back whenever you're ready and I'll add you in the schedule."_ ,Said Maria smiling.

Sif nodded at Maria and made to leave.

" _Umm Sif?"_

" _Yes….aa….Maria?"_

" _Until you join us you're more than welcome to continue your night shifts."_ Maria said with a raised eyebrow and a sly mile worthy of an elf. _She knew._

Sif gaped at her for a moment. Then opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. So she just awkwardly nodded and mumbled something before leading herself out.

SCENE/CHANGE

The people of Asgard were celebrating the Victory Festival like every other year in the basement of the old Norway building. Thor and Loki were sitting at the royal table joined by Sif, Heimdall and Valkyrie. A _(mutually respectful and guilt trodden?)_ silence persisted between Loki and Sif who sat opposite each other. Neither making eye contact but stealing glances at each other. Thor and Loki chatted about Asgardian and Midgardian cuisines as Sif and Valkyrie discussed best defense techniques and Heimdall ate in silence. Not used to social contact, Heimdall excused himself from his position on his sister's side to his observatory Stark had provided him right after the feast ended and the dancing commenced.

Val gestured at Thor with her eyes making sure that it went unnoticed by Loki and Sif.

Thor turned to Sif and said:

" _As we all know it's tradition that the King has the first dance. May I have the honour my Lady?"_

Sif's eyes opened to full circle in surprise as Loki's hand holding the glass of wine stopped halfway to his lips and he looked back and forth from Sif to Thor. Val observed this and involuntarily raised an eyebrow. Sif stole a glance of Val to see how she reacted to this. She expected shock, jealousy or hurt but rather found a persuasive look and a smile.

Now, once again, thoroughly confused and knowing that it would be rude to decline His Majesty's offer, Sif took Thor's outstretched hand and made way to the dance floor. Loki proceeded to drink his wine as he watched their retreating backs then started looking straight ahead. Refusing to look that way again.

" _It's so nice to see these two working it out isn't it? In such a period of turmoil for all of us, it's nothing less than solace to know that at least the King has found some happiness.",_ Val said now addressing Loki.

" _I think you're getting ahead of yourself. It's just a dance and they are old friends. Your little crush on Thor isn't a lost cause yet.",_ Loki said as if trying to placate himself not Valkyrie. Valkyrie snorted and took another gulp of whatever she was drinking from a huge bottle.

" _Haven't you heard that they are courting each other? Sif told me a week ago. And not that it's any of your business but FYI, I'm not much interested in men."_

Loki frowned as he looked down at the floor chewing on his lower lip. Then he looked ahead and saw Sif and Thor dancing and laughing to the customary first dance music and raised his chin up.

" _Looks like I'm not the one who has a crush on someone."_

" _Whatever you mean by that " ,_ Loki now looked irritated and annoyed at her. Val gave him a smug smile in return.

" _I don't mean anything."_ , Val said as she got up and made her way to the bar yet again.

Loki stole another glance at the dancing duo before deciding to retire to the library of Kamar Taj. He needed a distraction from stupid people like Valkyrie and had newly gained access to it after a LOT of petitions. He got up and left.

SCENE/CHANGE

Loki was still in the library two hours after he had left the feast. His wrist band suddenly started beeping. Which only meant one thing, it was a battle cry. He pressed the only button on the device and the small screen read: A-S-S-E-M-B-L-E.

Loki teleported himself to the conference room of the Head Quarters and found everyone who was anyone there. All the guardians, Asgardian soldiers, SHEILD members, Wakandans, and original avengers were there, including Scott Lang and Hank Pymm. Loki noticed Sif at Thor's side.

Steve Rogers, Tony Stark looked grim and _(scared?)_ and rest all the SHEILD agents including Romanoff looked either angry or terrified. Except them, no one seemed to know what had happened. Something big had happened which needed immediate attention.

Director Nick Fury took the podium to address this group. His group. Of remarkable people.

" _Soldiers. We have intelligence from Heimdall that Thanos' closed circle of universe's deadliest assassins, known as the Black Order, is going to attack Knowhere and take hold of the Aether. It's happening much before than we anticipated. And I think we'll have to fight our first battle very soon. Now, in fact. "_

Loki shook his head in disbelief. He had predicted this.

A feeling of dread and fear spread through the hall. This had suddenly become too real. And no one could imagine what'll happen next. No one except Loki. And Loki's imagination was terrifying.

 **A/N: So here it is. The harbinger of an imminent first battle. I hoped you liked it. I wanted to build up their relationships while also advancing the plot so this chapter was pretty hard to write. Hence I hope it delivered. There is so much of tension building up on all fronts.**

 **A special shout out to Aurum Fidei for all those heartwarming reviews. SageHilton, chibitamaora, Lalaith Quetzalli and melanchloly, thank you for your reviews as well. You guys are awesome. Sorry if I missed anyone. Keep the reviews coming.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hey everyone! I have bad news. I have this huge entrance exam coming up so this is the last time I am updating before May 13. But I WILL come back because this fic is a too dear to my heart. I will never abandon my warfrost babies let alone when I already have the whole plot thought out. Believe me, I am only letting this go for a while because that exam is really crucial for my future and I am grounding myself for a month. I hope you guys will return after that. Please Please Please do. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I couldn't have expected 71 reviews just 5 chapters in even in my wildest dreams.**

 **One of you wrote an anonymous review saying that they don't like italicized dialogues and whatnot. I personally used to prefer dialogues in another font when I read fics but if that's what all of you prefer just let me know. Just for the sake of it, I won't italicize dialogues in this chapter.**

 **I have tried to advance a lot of plot in this chapter while also building the Sif Loki bond a bit. This chapter is the longest I have ever written. Also, for those of you who wanted sibling love, you'll get a lot of it in the later chapters. But not in the semblance of what you expected. Let's get started.**

 **Friends, Allies and** **More**

There was a lot of commotion in the conference room of the Avenger Headquarters Building today. Nick Fury had just announced the beginning of the first battle, the first war. Everyone was tensed, confused and terrified. Some were frantically talking to each other some were praying. But the leaders, the heroes, the soldiers stayed silent. Tony, Steve, Natasha, Thor, Hill, T'Challa, Peter, Shuri, Okoye, Sif, even Loki, didn't say a word. They knew they were the ones who'll be the first in for glory, for sacrifice, for the loss of a loved one. The first won in battle.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Nick Fury began.

"I know the thought is scary. It is nothing like we have seen before. But it's something we have been preparing for. Today we don't fight for one life, we fight for all of them. We fight for the very relevance of life. And our only strength is our unity." He looked at Maria hill and nodded at her who nodded back before stepping forward to describe the avengers the plan of action.

"The sad reality is, that we don't have the time to come up with a full proof plan. Whoever goes to fight this battle runs a risk of death." Maria paused a while to notice the reactions of her comrades.

Peter felt his body tense up at the mention of death. Wanda closed her eyes and sighed as Banner pressed his lips into a thin line. Steve's hand instinctively rose up and rested on Bucky's shoulder and Tony's hand flew on top of Pepper's who was sitting beside him, tears threatening to roll down her eyes. The possibility of a death had wrung cords in their innocent, earthly hearts. But Thor and Valkyrie's expressions didn't change, neither did Loki or Sif's. They were seasoned warriors who had never feared dying on the battle field if at all. Asgardians were always hard to perish. Frost giants with magic capabilities, even harder. Groot, who was holding Gamora's hand tightened his grip as he looked at her with his scared, black, doe eyes. Gamora smiled in return. Not phased a bit.

"We have summoned you all to decide. Right now itself, who will and who won't be going to battle…" Maria continued before she was interrupted.

"I will go and fight the Black Order"

All the eyes turned towards Gamora who was surrounded by the guardians. Maria pressed her lips together as Gamora continued speaking.

"What? The Guardians, are your best bet. We have already defeated Ronan the Accuser once. And I have been a part of the Black Order since I was a child. I have trained with them. Defeated them while training. They are beings of immense strength and humans are of no match to them."

"Asgardians are your best bet Agent Hill," said Thor. He then directly addressed Gamora

"As you said, my Ladyship. These assassins, they know you. And they are expecting you. You might prove to be more of a strength to them than us. Asgardians are as strong, and more organized. I will lead those of us who can fight to another glorious battle myself."

"Stop being ridiculous Thor you're vulnerable without your hammer. Will you never stop being an oaf? You will get all you care for killed." All eyes now rested on Loki.

"I suggest that we do something they can never expect. We need new allies. Knowhere is closest to Jotunheim. If we won't ally with them Thanos will."

"Hey! Hey! Reindeer games, love the confidence and everything but you know that you're the last person we're going to trust. For all we know you may be acting as a double agent for Thanos," Tony finally spoke up.

"Stark mind yourself. I trust him"

"It's not your first time now is it Point Break? How has that fared for you in the past? Be thankful that he is here."

"I think I am the one in the strategy team not you"

"You're in the team because you've been an ally of Thanos before not because we trust you."

"Thanos would never make Jotunheim his ally. Doesn't think they're good enough. But so weren't you but here we are." Said Gamora agitated at this indecision.

"You think you know him well don't you? Aren't you a Daddy's little girl?" Loki retorted not being able to help himself.

"Oh I remember you when you fell upon our realm begging for mercy, begging for a chance. Rotting in our cells for eons. We all thought you were….pathetic."

Natasha couldn't help but smile when Gamora used the same adjective for Loki which he so regularly used for terrestrials. The smile, however, never reached the eyes.

"At least I was there of my own accord and not because I was picked up as a mewling baby and who later turned into a killing weapon," Loki smirked at Gamora who had had enough.

"No Pixie Dust. You were picked up as a mewling fallen prince and became his human killing machine to escape mild torture"

Loki exhaled looking at Gamora with nostalgic pain in his eyes. Sif wasn't the only one shocked by this revelation. Why had Loki never talked about his time with Thanos?

"Enough! Gamora. Will anyone listen to what Agent Hill has to say? We can't fight each other that's what they want!" Peter Quill interjected.

Steve intervened before Peter could complete: "Isn't Loki the one who led the Frost Giants into your coronation just for fun Thor? And isn't he one of them himself-?"

"I am NOT one of them" exclaimed Loki grinding his teeth together and looking daggers at Steve, who realized his blunder and resolved to not ever touch that nerve again. The hurt in Loki's eyes was visible to everyone.

Sif who till now had only been a silent spectator finally intervened.

"What you say might just be right but we are not really in a position to bargain with the Jotuns. They know you're with us and you killed their king. You might speak the good of all but what you propose is dangerous."

"That's enough! Everyone will get a turn to speak. Make sure you don't do it out of turn." Maria said looking squarely at Gamora who rolled her eyes and started looking in another direction.

"Lady Gamora, we agree with you. And you too your grace. That is why we have decided that Gamora, Peter Quill, Thor, Lady Valkyrie, Lady Sif and Drax the Destroyer will lead the remaining of the Asgardian army to battle."

"Thor can't! He is our King. We can't risk the future of Asgard. I will lead the Asgardians to battle as the Shieldmaiden. I am much more dispensable" Sif objected.

"You're not dispensable" Val protested.

"No you aren't, Sif. And you should remember that before becoming a king I was an Avenger. This is my duty" Thor said with resolve in his eyes.

"Wakanda will supply you our best weapons," T'Challa said after seeking an eye to eye approval of Okoye and Shuri.

"And I will lead the Baast Force equipped with Virbanium armours. That is not a request. Wakanda is sponsoring ninety percent of our side of the war and we will not sit spectators in any battle. It's against tradition." Said Okoye.

"I think I will accompany you guys, " Bruce said adjusting his glasses.

"We might need the Hulk."

"No, we can't use all the manpower we have into the first battle. Hulk is too important an asset for us. " said Steve.

"But we can't afford to lose this battle now can we? " Banner questioned.

"The odds aren't against us but we can't take a chance. This might be a trap. We can't have all of our best soldiers dying at a single battle" Said Tony.

Loki now directly addressed Thor.

"Brother, you're putting everyone at great risk. Believe me! Thanos is no fool."

"I believe you brother but I don't make decisions here-"

"You don't. And we're done here. Dismissed." Nick Fury himself concluded.

Loki stayed put while everyone one by one left. He stared at Nick Fury for a while before saying'

"You're making a grave mistake."

"I know. And I fear I'll regret it. Letting you stay here was our biggest mistake."

Loki left before giving Fury one last menacing look.

SCENE/CHANGE

Avengers were now all disbanded and forlorn. Guardians, Asgardians and the few members of the Baast force were all either whetting their knives, polishing their swords or testing their guns. Gamora and Peter were sitting on the steps of the corridor joining all of the guardians' rooms.

"Why can't I go with you?"

"We have been over this Rocket. It's too dangerous and one of has to stay to look after Groot if something were to happen to any of us." Gamora said looking at Groot who had whipped another video game.

"What is after Groot?" Asked Drax.

Quill rolled his eyes the millionth time.

"Nothing it's a phrase for taking care of"

Just then a projection of Loki appeared before them.

"I am Loki of Asgard-"

"I am Groot"

Loki narrowed his eyes at Groot for interrupting his dramatic introduction. Gamora threw her shoe at him which phased right through.

"We know who you are Pixie Dust. What do you want?"

"I need to have a word with Sir Rocket. There is an emergency meeting of the Strategists."

"No." said Gamora and Quill in unison.

"Yes" said Rocket. Gamora shot him a glare.

"What? No one has ever called me Sir! I like this man he's hilarious"

Loki didn't quite like the adjective 'hilarious' but he had better concerns at hand.

"That makes him a joker then. I'd like to hear a joke." Said Drax eagerly.

"I am Groot " Groot smiled at the prospect of hearing a joke.

"I am not a joker. And I know you don't trust me but you do trust Agent Hill don't you? These are her orders and you might as well talk to her. At Loki's side, a projection of Maria appeared.

"He is right. All strategists are to assemble in the 3rd floor office of the Asgardian wing right away. Mr. Odinson has some defensive measures to discuss which need immediate attention. Or so he claims." Maria disappeared as she said this.

Rocket made to stand up.

"I will not approve of this. I don't trust him," Gamora stopped him by placing a hand on his elbow.

"I'll be fine. He called me Sir. This man is really wise." Rocket shoved her hand away.

SCENE/CHANGE

Rocket entered the Asgardian building and made way to the third floor office. He found all the strategists sitting there. But to his surprise, one by one, they all started vanishing. Illusions.

"It's just you and me here." Came Loki's voice from behind. Rocket now realized that he had been tricked. This was Loki's chambers.

"Why did you call me here weird man?"

Loki held Rocket's hand and teleported them to a secluded area beside the pool. No one used to some here. And Loki had made sure no cameras or microphones were secretly hidden here. Rocket was shook.

"Sorry for that. Couldn't have talked there. We have a risk of getting caught and we can't leave the premises without setting off any alarms. Now, We have a common concern. And you are the only one skilled enough to help me."

"What the hell? What do you want from me? Why should I trust you?"

"You have to. If you want to save your friends. Who are fools enough to fall into Thanos' little trap. He knows exactly what we're capable of and his minions would be ready. Everyone you love will die if you don't do anything."

Rocket was silent. He didn't want to sit back as the only people he truly cared for were at mortal peril.

"You will be safe. I just need you to get me a ship. I will go to Jotunheim and negotiate with them while you will be here on earth safe with your plant."

"Don't call him a plant. He is Groot. Quill and Gamora don't trust you. I can't betray them."

"And you let them die? Why am I doing this? Think about it. I betrayed Thanos and I killed Laufey, the king of the Frost Giants and I tried to terminate their whole race. I am putting my life at great risk doing this. I have no leverage. Why will I lie? "

"Then why are you doing this? "

"Because I'm certain that my brother will die if I don't. And he is the only living soul who still trusts me. It's not because I love him or anything but because without him I'll be dead meat. "

"You'll be dead meat if they don't believe you too. "

Loki didn't have an answer to this. He himself didn't want to acknowledge that he was doing this because he cared for Thor...he cared for Sif. He cared for the people he once ruled and protected. He knew it. Just couldn't admit it yet.

"Are you in? "

"I'm in," came a voice from behind an artifical tree. Loki hadn't noticed that they had an audience.

"Agent Barnes, what are you-? "

"Doesn't matter. I agree with you. The little I have heard of Thanos is that he isn't stupid. He is like people I worked for before. He won't let us win that easily. That is why, I want an in in this mission. Wakandans, specially Okoye saved my life. Their honour is leading them to committ suicide. I'm more than sure that this will result in their death. I can't let that happen."

Loki shook his head.

"I can't trust you. "

"And you think I trust you? You don't have an option. Neither of us do. We have to work together that's how wars work. I have fought many wars not knowing what I was fighting for. Now that I do, I'll do it with all I have. You want to save your brother. I want to save my saviours. And the Frost Giants might not want to negotiate with the killer of their King. "

"Then I'm in too.On one condition." said Rocket.

"What condition? " asked Loki.

"We should have a name" said Rocket now excited.

"No! Not another name. We don't need a name this is a one time thing anyw-"

"Hot Shots"

"No!"

"Yeah you're the furthest thing from hot ooh- GHOST BUSTERS! "

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Anti-Heroes"

"Too pretentious"

"Killer Raccoon Kats"

"I'd rather be called Human"

"How about Winter Warriors? " both Loki and Rocket's eyes shot up as the ever silent and sedative white wolf spoke.

Loki considered for a second and then said:

"You know what? I like that! I am Jotun and I'm sort of associated with winter. "

"Yeah and my code name was Winter Soldier so... "

"Yes and we're fighting a war that makes us warriors. That was very clever... "

Loki and Bucky both nodded in approval at this amazing suggestion but Rocket looked displeased.

"Hey! Where am I here? Winter Warriors doesn't suit me! Raccoons hibernate in winter! "

"We're gonna go with Winter Warriors. " said Bucky matter-of-factly shrugging his shoulders.

"But... "

"You wanted a name you got a name. We're done here.Now tell us how to get our hands on a ship"

"No matter how fast the ship is, we'll never reach there in time. "

"Here's the thing, I need a ship that can withstand the pressure of being sucked into a wormhole and with amenities for a day. I have discovered secret passage ways to various realms and the one to Jotunheim is dangerous without a strong vessel. That's the only reason why I need you at all. "

"Which ship do you want? " asked Rocket contemplating the odds.

"One of Strark's will do. "

"Stark's Quinnjet has just been upgraded. I can find a key to it's security code but there is a lot of manpower around it. " said Bucky.

"Alright. So you bring us the key code to the Quinnjet. And you, " he pointed at Loki, "bring us Nick Fury's fake eye."

"Why on the nine realms do you-?"

"Trust me. We'll need it. Leave everything else to me. " Rocket said seriously with a determined expression on his face.

"Alright. Let's get going right now. "

"You're going to get that eye now? "

"Right away. But before that I have some business to attend to. "

SCENE/CHANGE

Sif was sitting in her training arena that night whetting her knife. Thinking about the upcoming battle. Battles never scared her. She had fought almost every type of being across the nine realms. But the thought of this one, for some odd reason, was haunting her.

"My Lady"

Sif turned around to find Loki standing there.

"I came to apologise. I shouldn't have said what I said that day. I didn't mean it. Your rage against me was justifiable. "

"My Prince, It wasn't justifiable. Even now, after all those interrogations, I don't know why you did what you did. And what Lady Gamora said toda-"

"You obviously proved me wrong," Loki changed the topic not liking the course the conversation was taking.

"About what? "

"About what I said about you and men" Loki said with a coy expression looking embarassed... "I heard about you and Thor. Many congratulations. " Loki said with sadness written all over his face but sporting an easily spottable fake smile.

"Thor and I what? "

"He's been courting you isn't he? That's what you always wanted. " he said, his smile fading.

"No he isn't. Who told you that? And...my priorities change with time. "

He slightly frowned before realising Sif had no reason to lie. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding on knowing that she was no longer amorous on Thor.

"Lady Commander told me that. " Loki resorted to use Val's title name lest Sif get angry. Or he'd have simply called her a booze hag.

Sif laughed at the thought of Val spreading such rumours about her. She wondered what she was playing at. Meanwhile, Loki got transfixed by Sif's honest laugh. He had seen it after so many years.

Last time he had seen her laugh, he recalled, was at Thor's coronation feast. He was having lunch with his mother at the royal table when he had said something witty about Volstagg eating habbit. It had thrown everyone in fits of laughter. Hogun, Fandral, Sif, all his friends. The image of that evening was a happy one. What had he done? He mused. What had jealousy and rootlessness made him do? He once again tried to shive away the fact out of his mind that this was all his fault.

"Don't believe anything she says. She keeps having strange ideas of people being in love with people and is drunk most of the time." Loki was brought out of his reverie by Sif's revelation.

"I too would like to apologise. "

"There is no need. "

"But I also have a question. "

"Yes, my Lady? "

"Why did you banish me? "

"You were smart enough to figure out that I was disguised at Odin. I was afraid that I'll be caught. "

"And that's it? I expected better from the so called Master of Manipulation. Your fear caused me my everything. " Sif said concentrating once again on her knife. Controlling herself from getting angry over Loki again. She was past this. She didn't know what had drove him to go to such lengths. But it wasn't easy to forgive him, let alone forget.

Loki didn't know what to say.

"I have no answers my Lady. Just apologies. "

"Not accepted... " Loki nodded as he rose his chin, looking down at her with a hurt expression before Sif completed "...yet"

Loki let out an exasperated sigh,

"I hope that'll change someday. All the luck for tomorrow. May Odin sends you strength and Frigga patience from Valhalla. May the glory be yours. My Lady. " Loki courtesied as Sif nodded.

As he mamade his way to Fury's chambers his train of thoughts was the following:

He couldn't let her die. He couldn't let Thor die. He couldn't let anymore of his friends or family died because of him. Even if it meant facing another family which had also suffered at his hands. Died at his hands. He had messed things up real bad.

SCENE/CHANGE

Rocket loaded another modified sedative in his gun. It was 1 AM and everyone was getting rest for tomorrow. They had a long space voyage in front of them. That is everyone, except the Winter Warriors.

"This sedative doesn't make you drop. I invented this. This works on humans and makes you trust everything you hear. Now what is the security key code? "

"Oh yes," Bucky said retrieving a paper from his pocket, "I-A-M-I-R-O-N-M-A-N" Bucky read out letter by letter.

"What the hell that just says I am Iron Man! " Rocket mused aloud.

Bucky frowned having realised it only just now.

"And they call me narcissistic " Loki said sounding bored.

"There ain't no thing like me except me"

"What does that has to do with anything? "

"Just making things clear."

Loki rolled his eyes _yet_ again.

"Anyway, here's the eye you asked for. "

"Oh we don't need it. "

"WHAT? "

"Yeah I just thought it'd be funny! Wasn't it funny? , " Rocket burst out into fits of laughter.

"No it wasn't funny! I had to drug the man to sneak it out I will be suspended for this!"

Soft giggling resonated from behind him. Loki turned sharply to see Bucky's shoulders shaking as he tried to veil his laughter.

"It _was_ kinda funny..." Bucky said now openly laughing.

"Imagine he'll wake up today to go for a walk and people will be like hey man you're missing an eye! " Rocket started laughing even harder while Bucky kept on giggling having visulaised the scenario. Loki gaped and started at the two of them.

"I am going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots of the galaxy," he thought aloud.

 **A/N: So there it was! The longest chapter I have ever written. I am sorry to be leaving on such a dramatic note but I'll try to be back ASAP. Who knows if I might get time I even update before 13th. Keep praying for me guys I need all those prayers for my test. And thanks for all the love. Really! Couldn't have asked for more.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey everyone I'm back! Hopefully, with a bang. I just cannot possibly explain my gratitude over all the reviews and favorites I've got! 93 is like a dream. Thank you so much for showing all this support you're all very kind. I'd like to give a special shout out to MissBoaBoa for the extreme kindness she has showed me. Also, guys go check out Agent Renegade's forum I guess some of you will be interested.**

 **Now for the story, I am sorry I took so long to update. I had very important engagements. I apologize for disappointing you. It will not happen again I promise. Also, this is a SPOILER WARNING for people who haven't seen infinity war but some of the scenes are going to be inspired by the movie. Don't worry, here you won't suffer the same heart break because that's what fanfictions are for. But things may get intense in the future. Now on with the story….**

 **Lies of Importance**

Deep into the middle of the night, Agents 23 and 36 of SHIELD's air vessel protection and restoration stood vigil before the chambers of Tony Stark's new mistress, The Quinnjet. As they engaged in light badinage and mild flirting, neither of them realized when a capillary thin flying dart came and pierced each of them in their necks.

"Hi!" Loki appeared on the terrace port followed by Bucky.

"Nick Fury has sent me to give this jet a test drive. Would you mind?" Loki made way to the touch pad which was supposed to open the glass door.

"Not at all! After all, Fury's orders" said Agent 23.

"Thanks Amanda!" Rocket remarked before following Loki with Bucky in queue.

"Amanda?"

"That's your new name remember?"

"Oh yes that is my name"

"And the drug works. One more to go." Rocket remarked as the vibranium door opened. Rocket pointed the dart gun at the back of the blonde's head sitting as the final guard between them.

The dart made no sound as it escaped Rocket's gun. Neither did the blond who immediately turned around and caught it. Who was skilled enough to catch an almost invisible dart flying at half the speed of sound?

"Romanoff" Bucky plainly stated.

Natasha let a ghost of smile cross her features and thrive.

"Expected someone else? You thought Fury will let you go on this mission alone?"

"Wait! What mission? Fury was in on this" Rocket asked Loki confused. Loki just narrowed his eyes and looked back and forth between Natasha and Bucky.

"Not until now" Bucky shook his head.

"Seargent Barnes. Care to explain?" Loki raised an eyebrow at Bucky and a smile that verged on a grimace.

"Not really" Bucky stated. Still looking as if he was experiencing caffeine deficiency syndrome.

"Allow me! See you're not the only one with tricks up your sleeves. Fury knew you would do something to prove yourself right. There is a reason he completely disregarded what you had to say. He knows how to use people…even Gods as leverage." Natasha explained, that infectious repulsive smirk never leaving her face.

Loki raised his chin up and looked down at her with evaluating eyes. As if sizing her up. God of mischief didn't like to be tricked. But he knew where this was going.

"Go on" he said.

"So he put Bucky up to the task of finding out what exactly you were planning. He is a soldier and he follows order. Did you really think he would lie to his boyfriend on your bidding?"

"Excuse me?" Bucky asked without an expression crossing his features.

"I meant Steve" said Natasha matter-of-fact-ly and Bucky didn't even bother to correct her.

"Now, we need new allies but not another betrayal from your side and we all know how gullible Barnes can be…no offense!"

"None taken"

"So I am in-charge of this mission."

Loki started, "I'm sorry but this is my pla-"

"EXCUSE ME! This is MY plan and 'I' am in-charge. I feel so USED right now." Rocket started ranting and shouting.

And at this point it was known to Loki that argument with stupid mortals was pointless.

"Why then? Why did we have to go through this whole ordeal of stealing and sneaking our way here?"

"We needed to see if you were actually smart enough to pull this off."

"And? Impressed?" Loki smirked back. Natasha's smirk further widened.

"No one else except Fury and I knows this. Not even Hill. Shall we?"

Natasha entered the jet and started straight towards the pilot seat. Loki and Bucky followed while Rocket stayed outside.

"Lead away Odinson." Natasha pointed at the co-pilot seat Loki took begrudgingly.

" _Just because I owe you a kingdom Thor"_ Loki thought to himself desperate to make sense of this un-Loki like move.

 **A/N: So here you go. I know this is a very short chapter but I will be updating the next chapter tomorrow itself. I am sorry for the length but I just had a very painful tooth operation and hence couldn't write much but since I had promised an update today so here you go. The chapters however in general are going to be shorter and more frequent now. I've taken the inspiration for this pattern from Colubrina. Some say it's less tedious to follow such fics. Please let me know in the reviews or in my inbox if this doesn't work for you all. Keep showering me with love and keep me in your prayers for my results are due tomorrow.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I don't have much to say except that in Infinity War Marvel did many of its characters wrong, and I will try my best to change that. In fact, all my babies deserved better. Please keep supporting this and we can keep the characters we've grown up love up and alive and relevant.**

 **When do we start?**

Loki was pacing around the Quinnjet trying to make sense of his quasi inadequate plan. He would not dare admit it but he was scared to death and when he was certain no one was watching him, he let his frown grow. Bucky was staring out of one of the small windows into the outer space and Nato was piloting their way through the worm hole. With headphones on with rapt attention to the obstacle-aversion navigation system. Loki had to admit that for someone who had never been into space before, she was a fairly decent pilot. He admitted now, begrudgingly, that midgardians were one of the smarter species. And his experience told him that they were not to be meddled with but were rather great allies.

"So did he torture you?" Bucky asked breaking Loki's reverie.

"There is absolutely no need to fill in the silences." Loki responded, both passively infuriated and surprised over this sudden concern Loki was showering him with.

"How else would you explain New York? I'd been briefed about it before taking up this mission."

"And?" Loki raised an annoyed eyebrow ever so slightly.

"You have a thing for drama and you're annoyingly pale. But you don't come off as the type who can kill to conquer the world."

"Why do you want to know at all?"

Bucky looked straight ahead for a quarter of a minute before finally confiding, "I've done some terrible things too. Some would say I was made to. But sometimes to believe it. To make sense of what happened, it's important to know that you're not alone."

Loki looked as if he'd pierce a hole through Bucky with just his gaze. Unsure of what to say. He was called Silvertongue. This wasn't supposed to happen to him.

"So what changed?" Bucky asked again. Thankfully, Loki didn't have to respond.

"He has changed. Doesn't even have the crazy in his eyes anymore" Natasha turned around taking her headphones on. "He has gotten a bit boring really."

"I am sorry why are we taking so much interest in me all of a sudden? And YOU! What do you mean by boring?" Loki interjected slightly relieved with the change of topic.

"Well not everything is boring" One corner of Natasha's lip pulled as her gaze started scrutinizing Loki's half turned Asgardian form starting from his feet and stopping below his lower back."

"WHA- What are you doing?" Loki asked. This time truly agitated with discomfort written across his face.

"Why? Did I make you uncomfortable? I thought I was just a mewling quim and you were a god or something" Natasha smirked at Loki as she raised a brow.

Loki's eyes became dead still as he faced Natasha. He could really punch her. This red haired hag who was never taught to be a lady. Bucky still look sleepy.

"Not a god, 'THE God of Mischief" Loki said while he made a gesture with his hand behind his back. Nato turned around to concentrate on piloting.

"AAAAAA" she screeched a high pitched scream as she saw her face in the light reflection of the sill that her hair were no longer short and red but blue and in the style of a Mohawk. As she recovered from the trauma of getting a heart attack because of seeing herself she lashed out obscenities in Russian:

"ты, конь, чертовски ублюдок, сукин сын FIX THIS RIGHT NOW!"

"Now stop mewling my Lady Quim. I think it suits you. Not so boring anymore right?" Loki said in mock concern as he removed the spell.

"Отправляйся" Natasha muttered making a mental note of revenging this disgrace later. Loki started laughing triumphantly.

"You wouldn't be laughing if you actually understood what she said" Bucky plainly stated.

"What did she say?" Curiosity got the better of Loki but he still looked amused.

"She rather explicitly implied that you had carnal relations with a horse" A faint flash of smile passed through Bucky's face in a millisecond.

"You have a rather fond imagination" Loki now directly addressed Nato now.

"I don't. That is what the mythology says about you. You're the mother of a horse and father of a wolf."

"What the-"

"We're here. This is it." Natasha said as her attention shifted to her monitor screen.

"This is earlier than I expected

"Ready to negotiate with your kin you tried to eliminate from existence?" Natasha asked Loki with a tone of sarcasm and….concern?

"A bit earlier than I expected"

"You're scared." Bucky asked, still unflinchingly sedated.

"Fear is good. Puts you at advantage." Loki said determinedly.

"You really ARE clever" Natasha said smiling at Loki looking at him from under her lashes. "So ready?"

"As your people put it," Loki took a deep sigh as he raised his chin slowly up and looked at the planet slowly approaching them menacingly with resolve then shook his head ever so slightly in one brief to and from motion "HELL YES."

 **S/C**

"It's time to board the war craft." Maria Hill announced to the group of Avengers selected to fight the battle on Knowhere.

Thor, Valkyrie, Sif, Gamora, Peter Quill and Drax started leading what was remaining of the Asgardian army into the vessel. Rocket, Groot, Mantis, Tony, Cap and everyone else was there to see them off. While Thor was still wondering where Loki has suddenly disappeared, Steve and Tony couldn't help but notice Nato and Bucky's absence even though Fury had informed them that they were taking care of a potentially harmless business, obviously they didn't know the mission involved them travelling into outer space.

Sif's own eyes were looking for someone. She didn't know why. She didn't know why she wanted to see him at all. She just did. Whether it was the thought of an imminent death or fear of his betrayal, or something else, Sif's heart needed the reassurance of seeing him once. Of seeing Loki once. Why hadn't he shown up?

Almost every soldier had boarded the ship but before any of our heroes got in, Fury barged in with a tablet in his hands. He looked slightly panicked and Fury never looked panicked.

"There has been a human error in our calculations and it looks like we'd have to abort mission."

"What? We CANNOT do that. You know we can't" Said Gamora, terror visible over her green face for the first time.

"Well we'd have to or you'll all be crushed due to the impact of the Einstein Rosen Bridge you'll be passing through and that would just not make any sense. Unless we're able to find an astrophysicist, a cosmologist and a convergence specialist today itself we would have to abort."

"Can it all be the same person?" Thor asked. And was he smiling?

"Does it look like ANYONE is in mood of Asgardian humour no one understands except your lot?"

"Well I know just the person you're looking for" Thor said with still a hint of smile and pride in his face.

Valkyrie frowned confusedly as realization dawned on Sif's features followed by Tony, Hill and Fury. Others just had to wait an hour to find out.

"Can someone get Strange to open a portal to London?"

 **S/C**

She was wearing a surprisingly floral sundress as she sat on the porch of her study. She scribbled a few more digits in her notepad as she observed the lunar patterns. Something about the galaxy wasn't adding up these days.

Right then a circular orange fiery ring formed by her side. Sparks flying off it every now and then. Her eyes narrowed, then widened, and then the brightest smile broke out on her face.

"Thor!" she exclaimed as she jumped up to greet her ex-lover and friend.

"You cut your hair. It's a good look" she brightly complimented still glad on seeing the demi god.

"Well it wasn't intentional. Jane, we need your help saving the universe." Thor said.

Jane looked at the night sky. Her eyes observing the unusual patterns of stars and untimely constellations. She then turned her face to look at Thor.

"When do we start?"

 **A/N: So there you go guys! I will be uploading the next chapter tomorrow or the day after. Tell me if you liked this one. The next one is going to be extremely important and dramatic. You've all been really kind so far. I appreciate every single review and message I get. I always say this, but it means a lot. So keep that love coming. Thank you all again.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hey guys! So I guess I'm a terrible person for updating a day late. In my defense, my tooth was giving me a hard time. I could have never imagined that I'll get so much support though. You all keep me going and I'm just too grateful. I know I say this a lot but it can't be helped.**

 **Things are going to take pace from here and there will be relatively less humour. I'll still try my best though to keep the feel intact though. I hope I don't disappoint.**

 **And The Past Returns to Haunt**

Loki braced himself in the last few moments before their vessel finally approached the planet which resembled a pristine pearl placed against a deep blue cushion of the night sky. Its silver ring surrounded the planet as the white bands adorned the delicate finger of a fair maiden blushing. Natasha peered over the monitor leaning forward to incline the ship into a landing position. Bucky approached the dashboard from behind.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Natasha said observing Loki's expression. Which was a surreal mix of unmeasured terror and unabashed appreciation.

"Cruel and heartless monsters live there" Loki replied, still entranced.

"How are you so sure?" asked Bucky.

"I am, if every legend ever written in Asgard is to be believed."

"Unless the lion learns to write, the history will always glorify the hunter" Natasha said still not once breaking her stance as the Quinnjet slowly glided over the ashen ground parallel to the horizon.

Loki heaved a long sigh as he looked resolutely ahead of himself.

"Aren't you one of them?" Natasha said after a brief pause stealing a glance at Loki. The spy in her understood that her present ally needed the confidence he was feigning.

Loki pressed his upper lip over the lower one before stating what he thought was obvious. His face broke a half smile that boasted of pain that had been hidden under all those layers of leather and metal all these years ever since he discovered his heritage.

"Oh I'm worse" Loki took an involuntary gulp which would have gone unnoticed had both Natasha and Bucky had been amateurs. Which neither of them were.

"Ones past doesn't define their present. Especially not when the choices didn't exist." Natasha glanced up to see the two men who she knew were being haunted by their respective pasts. She tentatively licked her lips. She was not good at this. This time, she looked Loki in the eye,

"We all have red on our ledger." Natasha paused to examine the inquisitive eyes of a petrified Loki.

"It's time to wipe it off. And if that's too hard, paint over it with blue"

The wheels of the jet were now finally placed on the ground. Loki felt a cold rush through his body as his skin turned blue and eyes turned ruby red.

"In some religions blue is the colour given to gods. The most worshipped ones at that. I'm guessing if it was inspired by you."

"Well I AM a god" Loki offered trying to disguise his fear with arrogance.

"I thought you said you were a monster" Natasha worded out despite herself.

"He was. Back when he was delusional," Bucky offered with his eyes droopy but fixated on Loki. Natasha couldn't help the smile and surprise that played on her lips at Bucky's assistance of her confidence counselling pep talk.

"Also, blue looks very sexy"

Loki finally realized what was happening as his cheeks flushed purple at Nato's casual flirtation. It was good that he had more important tasks at hand.

"That, was not needed." Loki stated feeling both nauseated and warm at this display of concern which he knew emerged from the want of ensuring the success of the mission. But he still couldn't help but be grateful.

"I'll advise you both to not step out of the ship unless you want to die of cold. If I don't come back in an hour, don't wait up its dangerous."

"Okay so one ted talk and you're ready to sacrifice your safety for us now?" asked Natasha sarcastically.

Loki chuckled a child's laughter before replying,

"Heavens No! I can't believe you fell for that. You will not be able to make it back without me. So if I die, you die."

Natasha rolled her eyes while Bucky looked bored, also slightly tensed but mostly bored.

And with that Loki stepped down the jet over the white ice. The ship door shut behind him as he got a feeling of euphoria experiencing the coolness of the atmosphere around him. He shuddered when he remembered that this planet which was all too unfamiliar could have been his planet, his home. This planet he had sought to destroy could have been his kingdom.

With these thoughts of remorse and regret in his mind. He made his way towards what he knew as the remains of their former palace. This wouldn't be easy.

 **S/C**

"There you go. All set." Jane Foster handed over a piece of paper which had all the calculations she had made to make the Avenger's war craft functional.

"I knew I could always turn to you" Thor said with a warm smile on his face.

"That was the deal" Jane returned the smile as she started packing things back in her back pack.

"I'll see you outside to the portal"

"No need. You're very busy. I'll lead myself out." As Jane was making her way out of the quarters she was bumped into Sif and Valkyrie.

"Lady Jane, we meet again. This is Lady Brunnhilde, Commander of the Asgardian Forces and future Leader of the Valkyrior."

Sif and Val exchanged gestural courtesies.

"This is Jane Foster. Thor's dear friend and a scientist of the highest intellect."

"I am sure she is. Just let me express my gratitude over all you have done for us Lady Jane." Said Valkyrie with a half-smile.

Jane gave a very soft chuckle, "Please Lady Brunnhilde, I am no Lady and I am only average. And if someone should be grateful, it's me." She turned to face Sif. What you did for me that day in Asgard….well I never quite got the chance to thank you."

"It was on my honour to protect you from any harm. There is no need to thank me. Are you leaving already?"

"Yes my potential here is already exhausted" Jane nervously laughed. "I hope I'll see you soon."

Jane nodded at both the women and left. Just then Maria Hill's voice sounded over the microphone:

"All the agents who are a part of the Knowhere Expedition are requested to assemble in the port area immediately."

"Let's go" Sif gestured at Val who nodded in return as both the ladies made their way.

 **S/C**

Loki made his way through the now impoverished civilization of Jotunheim undetected. His shorter height and jotun skin was a great disguise. He noticed two boys carving out weapons with ice. They were emaciated and looked starved. The more Loki walked the more he realized how poor the people of Jotunheim had become since he had last visited and betrayed them. Natasha's words floated around in his mind and for the first time in his life he wasn't ashamed but pitiful of his heritage. These people didn't chose Laufey, his biological father, to be their king. The attack on Midgard wasn't their choice but an order. A crime of their ancestors they were atoning for.

He finally reached the throne area where he remembered Laufey used to sit. A female Jotunar, her skin sparkling blue with jet black hair fixed high up in a knot surrounded by a crown made of tusks of a mammoth like animal, clad scarcely in metal, was sitting on the throne when he announced his presence.

"I need to talk to your King" said Loki as he looked around "Or Queen"

"Who are you, civilian? And what do you want? You can be executed for not knowing who your Queen is."

"I am no civilian." Loki said as he changed back to his Aesir form. "I am Loki, Prince of Asgard. Adopted son of Odin and Frigga and I come here to make a deal."

"RESTRAIN HIM!" the Jotun shouted. And Loki was immediately surrounded by at least ten male Jotuns with all their lances pointing at him.

"I am just here to talk. Half of the Universe is about to perish. Which means half of your world too, at the hands of the Mad Titan Thanos. We can save it. But we'll need your help."

"WHAT reason do you think we have of trusting you again after you killed our king? After you betrayed us? After you tried to abolish our race? You ARE brave Asgardian. Foolish like your own kin." The red eyes of the matriarch burned as she sized Loki up, they burned with a seething rage, as if her soul itself were burning. "You! I have dreamt of finding you and torturing you. Of feasting on your Asgardian hide for doing this to us. I must be dreaming that you walk in here yourself." She stood up and approached him and Loki realized for the first time that she was at least a foot taller than he was. She spoke in a menacing tone which sent shivers down Loki's spine as she stared directly into his green-blue eyes with her blood red ones.

"I, Eda of Jotunheim, daughter of Laufey and rightful Queen of Jotunheim, do sentence you to death." Eda spoke between her teeth as she crushed them together. It was with much difficulty that Loki brought himself to speak.

"Kill me all you want to. Hunt me down and prey on me. Make a bonfire out of me. But right now, be a better Queen than your father….our father was, sister."

At this Eda turned around and slapped Loki hard across his face. She then held his cheeks with one hand tightly until his cheeks went hollow. She brought his face parallel to hers.

"Don't you DARE call me your sister or my father your own" She spoke as she let his face go.

It took Loki but a few seconds to recover from the impact. This was not over. He had stolen more than one possessions from Asgard's vault before reviving Surtur before Ragnarok.

"I do not propose this for free. I have a peace offering." Loki stretched his hand in front of him as the casket of ancient winters appeared in front of him.

"I, Prince of Asgard, on the behalf of Thor, the King of Asgard, hereby return to you the Casket of Ancient Winters. I should remind you that my attack on Jotunheim was stopped by Thor. And there is no denying that I AM, after all, one of you. Who was left to die because of inadequate form. " Loki didn't realize that he as heaving. His heart was thumping against his rib cage at the speed of light and his lips had gone dry.

"Which means you owe Asgard a debt. Use the casket to return Jotunheim to its former glory. Save your people from starvation. And join us in our battle against the mad Titan to save half your population from turning into dust."

Loki's words made Eda break out of her reverie. She looked around at her court men. Thought of the children she had buried who had died of hunger, the widow's wailing, mothers screaming. And in her heart she knew that her own Father's violent appetites was also one of the factors that had brought this about. She looked at the casket in Loki's hands. No, she did not owe a debt to Asgard, it was the people of Jotunheim she was indebted to, whose blood she had on her hands. And this was the only chance she could reverse this and save them.

"Alright. Once this kingdom is restored, we will ally with the rest of the beings. But YOU will be brought to justice as soon as the crisis is solved. I take an oath to _see you burned down._ " Eda spoke each of the last four words slowly and distinctly for maximum effect as she stretched her hands and Loki placed the casket in her palms.

"You will not regret this time."

 **A/N: I hope you all enjoy this chapter. This was the last build up chapter before the first battle. Next chapter will be up in three days. Thank you for the kindness you all have showed me and keep showering me with all the love. I need it right now as much as this story does.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hey everyone! I would like to profusely apologise for such a long delay. A lot of things popped up and I was under a lot of stress due to some personal commitments. But here is the chapter.** **The first part of the chapter has been written by NotTheTypicalFanboy, please review keeping in mind that this was his first time and be kind to him. He did an amazing job according to me.** **Any errors OR OOCness if at all, however, is on me because I edited it and it's entirely my fault**

 **That said, I can't believe I made it to the tenth chapter. I hope y'all enjoy this.** **Spoiler for the chapter 11: finally the Loki-Sif interaction I wanted to write all my life as a marvel fangirl.**

 **The First Battle**

It used to annoy her a lot at first, the beeps and the whirring, the buttons and the complexity, the signals and the lights, but in the due course of her time away from the Realm Eternal (quite ironical of a name she thought) , Sif had gotten used to it. Back where she came from the aerial vessels were more organic, more fluidic and well far simpler on the outside; quite unlike the goliath of the ship the Man Of Iron had designed. Transporting the three Guardians, the three Asgardians: leading an army of a hundred soldiers and Okoye leading the thousand Wakandans of the infamous Baast, could not have been possible without the full energy of the Bifrost, and so here they were, travelling through space in jumps and banking upon to Jane's calculations to make it there safe.

The only good thing, Sif thought as she looked outside the window, was perhaps the view of the ocean of stars. Shimmering in a thousand hues of light, little dots of fire against a wash of a blue and black infinity. Bright streaks and beautiful swirls. In all her days, at Asgard, she was travelling all around the nine realms, seeing sights ineffable, beauty unimaginable, but this, the space would usually be a blurry haze to her as she would fly through the Rainbow Bridge, following her comrades into the most glorious of battles. Perhaps the destination mattered so much more, than the journey back then. The comrades and friends were lost, the battles fought and destinations reached. Perhaps the same could be said for the cause. There was nothing more to be explained, no more questions to be answered no more Valhalla, no more campaigns and above all, no more identity, quite like the realms being destroyed and created every second, the suns exploding, the nebulas mating and the stars collapsing all nothing but little agitated pecks on a vast indifferent canvas, serving as tiny gimmicks to increase the aesthetic value of a gigantic picture. All that remains were the stories, the myths, the lore and the lessons. It had a beauty to it, a complete circle actually:

Born of imagination, immortalized in the same.

The castle of Asgard did not seem so pretentious and dubious now. And, she mused on, she had been denying it so far but there was one person who had actually experienced the true nature of reality and on top of it also succeeded in fully understanding the same and using it as he saw fit. Sif was surprised that she was no longer scared to admit it:

HE WAS LOKI.

She flinched at the thought that all the mischief and tricks and deception might have been a child's coping mechanism with a biased father and a loving but not the most understanding brother. Underneath all that, all the gold and the green, somewhere within the blue of his eyes, there was something, a survivor ; a survivor of involuntary choices with a heart so broken that he had forgotten he ever had one. The person who had tried so hard to make sense of it all, that he actually discovered the truth of it: that it made no sense at all.

That life was not fair.

'Is this sympathy, Lady Sif? 'she asked herself. No. It wasn't. It does not justify what he did in the slightest. It was empathy. She recalled the time when she had questioned the truth of her own existence (highly unlikely for a goddess to do so), and thought what she used to be before a warrior and what she would do when all the fighting would cease. And the absence of an answer had terrified her to her core. Or was it the scathing flood of the same that had failed to fill the infinite void within her soul. She knew then what she had to do. She had to grip the hilt of the sword tighter this time and stab her opponent deeper. Correct her form and block the attacks more efficiently. She had to fight. Because that is all she knew. And that is what she had to do: FIGHT, with rival armies or with her own self. Because we all had our coping mechanisms. Because at the end of all chains of commands, all the organizations and the propagandas, all directions of the moral compass, all the pieces neatly lined up on the chess board, we were just consequences, of choices we did not make and circumstances we could not control. The true heroes, worthy of the lore, were the ones who were under. The gods didn't choose to be gods and the mortals didn't choose to be mortals, but the one with power got intoxicated with it and set out to tip the scales under the garb of valour. Yet the ones supposed to kneel refused to do so. Not wise yet mighty beyond comprehension. They made their choice. But what choice did she have, Sif thought. She should be going over battle formations, getting acquainted with the various ranks of the alien armies, be there in the cortex of the ship learning more about her opponents, help in formulating the best plan of action and put all her training and experience of the past centuries to good use. Yet she chose to be here.

She chose to star gaze, instead.

Perhaps it was the effect of Midgard on her. Perhaps earth was starting to turn a goddess into a human.

S/C

Don't need reason, don't need rhyme

Ain't nothing I would rather do

Going down, Party Time.

My friends are gonna be there too.

Quill mimiced the escalating drum solo (with quite spry gestures of drum beat) .Then sang along:

I'm on a Highway to Hell…

On the Highway to Hell.

'Why is this vessel malfunctioning. We set the coordinates to Knowhere. Why is it telling us that we are heading to Hel. And my grandfather Bor had forbidden passage of the entire living population of the nine realms, ten millennia ago. And yet this ship of Stark talks of travelling down a HIGHWAY. What is this? Does Heimdall know?' said the one eyed man of the one eyed father.

There was a minute's pause as everyone absorbed what had happened.

'And he has an actual frown in his manly brow which means that he is not being frickin' sarcastic! How did you get to be the King of Ass-Guard,huh, pirate angel?' said quill.

Val, standing next to Thor, said ' MUTE' and the music stopped playing; she continued,' Sadly no Mute button on you Mr. Lord. Any doubts I had about the Rabbit being the Captain of your Team , have committed suicide from this moment on.'

Before Peter could react, Okoye entered the cortex, battle equipped and war ready , accompanied with two Wakandan soldiers holding spears and shields, she did a formal Wakandan greeting: crossing her arms and tapping her fists on her clavicle twice,to acknowledge the presence of Thor and the Lady Commander in the room and before she could say anything Peter interrupted:

Oooh Girl! You just began an all out dance off. Sudden Death!

And saying that he copied the Wakandan greeting and started repeating it in a rhythm and started dancing to it. Basically, Peter was being Peter.

With a hint of a flaring nostrils, Okoye interjected,' You know for a man named Quill, neither your words nor your actions are original or moving.'

Peter, indifferent, began singing

Heeee heee heee heeeeee

He heee heee heee heeeeee

Here comes O-K-O-Y-E

Dun

Dun

Dun

A-weembo weh, A-weembo weh, A-weembo weh,

A-weembo weh, A-weembo weh, A-weembo weh,

A-weembo weh, A-weembo weh,

Gamora yelled ,'PETER ENOUGH!'

Okoye said, moving closer towards Quill with every word, and increasing the authority and enunciation in her voice with each step,

"Listen STAR LORD! The only 'star' that I ever found a practical use for and harbour a fancy for in the smallest and coldest parts of my psyche is a Starbucks and if, given all the hype and rumour about your heritage, of course judging by what I see I can only think of how 'accurately true' such a proposition could be if there ever were one..if you , with all your charm and charisma and dance moves and your EGO , cannot transform yourself into a steaming cup of cappuccino, then I insightfully suggest and officially ask you, BOY, to find a lease for your tongue and your pre-pubescent nimble footed body. Because if you do not, one shall be found for you. Shush now, the elders are talking."

That was a whole lot of words with a whole lot of meaning that went just over Quill's head. Rap was never his favourite genre.

'Watch your tone lady!' retorted Gamora.

'At ease soldier.' barked Okoye

'No one talks to my friends like that !' said Drax charging.

With a beginning of a smirk and narrowed eyes Okoye said, ' Bring it on, dong'ja!' and with that leaped into a offensive stance her spear on point.

The other two Wakandans followed suite and yelling something in a foreign language stood in a defensive position : shields in the front, crouched, knees bent and spears out.

'I don't see Loki's Scepter around Val. Do you?' said Thor with a kick in his voice.

'And here I thought I make a mess when I am drunk, ha!' Valkyrie commented loudly.

After a lot of cacophonous comebacks, counter arguments, yelling and downright insults, Sif, who no one

even noticed till now, couldn't take it anymore.

Sif yelled loudly, louder than she ever did a battle cry:

STOP! EVERYBODY! Just Stop!.

Suddenly, all the entropy of the room sublimed into the moment.

She had been in the room long enough and she had kept to herself. But THIS was the extent of her Sif was in the company of Her King and Her Lady Commander but after a long time, Sif felt a detached from the whole hierarchy and the chain of commands.

She continued,'If you expect me to deliver a pep talk about war,its importance and other aspects of it , you have my sincerest of apologies, because I WON'T." she barked, her chest heaving.

"I can, with effortless proficiency, yet I won't. Because everyone of you aboard this ship has been in war. I know you understand. So I will leave the theatrics to the bards and the rhapsodes who will be later telling of this day. The only thing I will tell you is to FIGHT. The brains fight with brains. The brawn collide with brawn. The power with power and the skill with skill. But most with yourself."

She paused for a moment, let out a sigh and continued,

" Fight with yourself as the only thing standing between you and victory is yourself, your doubtful, insecure, afraid self. I know all this has not exactly been a great bonding session. It has been due unforeseen events and and someone else's choices that today we stand here, ready to defend and fight. But do you think" she gestured around,

"they expect us to put on matching uniforms, whet our swords sharp and march into a battle of such high stakes like a well oiled machine? That is not how a regime, platoon or battalion works. It takes months if not years to get to the rudimentary semblance of the dynamic that our superiors want us to develop out of thin air. That's not how this works. So go out there and fight. When the battle is over then and only then can you entitile yourself of opinions, grudges and conclusions. Because how much do you really know about a person unless you have been in real fight with him?"

Everyone in the room seemed to have acquired a taste for quietness. And the silence prevailed until Sif continued.

"Okay, so let us revisit our plan of ?"

"I go to Ebony Maw and the rest of the Black Order and pretend to strike a deal with them, basically buy Thor and Quill time to break into Tivan's vault and retrieve the Aether" she said, a little too wryly for her usual self.

"Since Knowhere happens to be a severed head of a Celestial and Tivan's Collection Museum happens to be right next to the spinal cavity and the cerebro spinal fuild extraction facility (Drax flinched momentarily) in all probability there is where the majority of the rival army will be and given the fact that the inside of a skull is not flat enough, the chances of the Outriders mounting a considerable offense is slim giving us a tactical advantage on ground and in air . Val?" continued Sif.

"I will go with Drax with a battalion of Asgardians to the inner forehead region of Nowhere and retrieve the mining pods and await further instruction." Said the Lady Commander.

"And Okoye and I with the entire Wakandan army and the remainder of the Asgardian army will take our positions in the nether regions of the skull awaiting Gamora's signal." said Sif.

"As soon as Thor and Quill confirm the Aether's safe retrival I send out the signal. The Airborne Asgardians converges brutal fire of laser beams in a circular fashion on the the Black Order from the north and the Wakando-Asgardian Cavalry takes on the ground level and the Outriders. We fight till the Aether is aboard the mothership and then fall back." Concluded Gamora.

"But the last part does not make any sense. The one after our exit from the battlefield". Interjected Drax.

"Let me run through it once more. There are several pods aboard this ship that can accommodate everyone in a group of 50. Anthony Stark had worked under the supervision of the All Seeing Heimdall and crafted those pods to harness the Bifrost , well what was left of it, remotely. As soon as we retrieve the Aether, we make board the ship and get into the pods. As soon as all the pods are full, each separate pod will be teleported to an unkown part of the galaxy decided at random, hence even those on board the pod would not know what is their destination going to be hence avoiding the risk of being will be connected through intra-pod telecom , which will be activated once the pods have made a safe landing so the frequencies cannot be hijacked or tapped. The empty mothership will already be on a charted course to a third unknown location and will serve as a decoy if the Black Order and the Outriders plan to follow the threat will have passed and the location of the aether secure, then we regroup accordingly. The pod has supplies to sustain life for an year. I am sure it would not come to that" he paused for a moment and then continued,

"This mission is all in or nothing .And I don't mean just the numbers" Thor said, a little weary of his own words.

Drax nodded. So did everyone everyone's mind was just as unsettled as that of his. It was not confusion. It was something else. The stakes, Sif reassured herself, were high and so the price must be too. This was bigger than her, bigger than all of them combined , this was the fate of half of the Universe.

"We will be making port in an hour." Val said looking at the navigation screen.

"I suggest that we make the final preparations and also go over the profiles of Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive , Proxima Midnight and Supergiant.."

'..If I may' interrupted Star Lord.

This was followed by mutual eye rolling of Okoye,Valkyrie and Sif.

Quill continued,

"So, everything goes according to plan . Not as much of a cog is encountered. We out best Voldemort, Skinny Grim Reaper, Ms Minotaur and Bigfoot.

But what is the guarantee that at the end of it Papa Smurf won't arrive looking all cute."

Okoye looked at Quill with disgust. This man had been on back on earth for less than a month in the middle of crisis and was already more profficient on all pop culture references than she was. She admitted begrudgingly to herself, how proud Shuri will be of this Star Boy.

Meanwhile, Gamora flinched on Quill's words, not even understanding a word he said. He flinched so quickly that it was almost hard to notice.

"He won't" she said at last.

"Can you be sure?" Peter asked.

The prevailing silence inside the cortex made up for more than an answer.

S/C

The last time she remembered being like this was when she was greeting the Alfather, with the traditional warrior courtesy, coming down on one knee and guiding her fisted forearm to her chest as a sign of reverence.

And now this? What could have gone wrong? They had been training from months waiting for this day. It was as if Huginn and Munnin themselves had been teasing it some time now in the previous chapters of their story.

All went according to plan. The training schedules were followed, the protocols adhered to, the criticism well analysed, the appraisals, known as well as anonymous, well received, the deadlines of the strategies met, the stress well managed, and the calls, no matter how difficult, made.

But this was not suppose to happen.

Its as if the Norn got tired of writing this chapter of their lives and hired a newbie to write their destinies.

But why was she thinking about all this on the inside while on the outside through every grimace and every drop of blood that dripped down her body, all she groaned were the last words fit for a warrior, brave , moving , and praising the Alfather and his Fathers and their gifts and mercies.

At the least she should be scared of what was going to happen next.

Knowhere was burning. It was burning to ashes. As if a meteor the size on a star had hit it's surface. Or maybe that was what Sif was experiencing.

Who on earth expected this revolting excuse for a warrior called Proxima Midnight to pkay by the rules. And why?

Sif barely managed to move her ruptured diaphragm through a wounded and probably fractured ribcage and get out another breath of her body, well a semblance of one, as the one Proxima had left her with was scarred, bruised, burnt, bloody, grimy: with multiple orifices all over oozing blood and life. She barely managed to balance herself by plopping her palms and severed head over the hilt of the Moon Cleaver and was still shaking as her broken knees were giving way. Her visual perception as she struggled to keep her wounded eyes open.

Perhaps it was a good thing, as she could only HEAR Proxima, gathering her wits with a loud grunt, and unsheath a sword and charge with a bellow.

S/C

Maria Hill leaned over the surveillance computers bringing visuals and audios from the cameras fitted in the ship as beads of sweat broke on her forehead.

"Nick the situation has gone out of control. We need to send back up or we'll lose both the soldiers and the infinity stone. "

Fury was panicking as his eyes were transfixed at the computer screens.

"I know I should've accompanied them," said Banner taking his glasses out and frowning.

"Stop blaming yourself Banner. If anyone, it's my fault" said Tony embracing his incessant urge of blaming himself for all tragedies.

"It's no one's fault." Cap surprised everyone by coming to Tony's defence, if only placid and indirectly.

"What does this mean Mr. Stark? " asked Peter.

"This means, boy that we're in great trouble and we don't have much time before that Blueberry giant invades our planet with his minions and others"

"This is just like an inter-galactic version of Budapest, " Clint said trying to meet Natasha's gaze and suddenly realising she wasn't there. He so hoped that she'd come up with a secret plan which will save the whole situation at hand. But how could she? The situation at hand was on another planet.

Shuri and T'Challa looked at each other with a hint of terror in their eyes as they saw Okoye and other Wakandan warriors being crumpled by the alien forces.

Thor was fighting the majority of his army single handedly and was just about to step in his warrior's rage which was a stage of strength of the God of Thunder where he became destructive of everything in his way. Friends and Foes alike. That is why it was a force to be avoided not cherished.

Brunnhilde barely managed to hold off Warlock and Glaive and Quill and Drax were trying their best to hold off Annihilus and Super Giant.

Gamora fought off both Ebony Maw and Nebula with as much strength as she could muster. At first she was surprised to see her sister fighting for Thanos after she'd saved her life , but then, she'd never really trusted her. She didn't want to admit but that emotion had weakened her and she wasn't able to fight to her full potential.

They all gasped as they half saw Sif came into one of the camera's view for a brief moment. They saw her struggle with The Black female warrior as she hit Sif with blows again and again. It looked as if Sif was blind. Blood was seeping out through various parts of Sif's body. Then they lost her as she was tossed far away and the female alien follwed her who seemed to be enjoying hurting her.

Hill shuddered when she saw this brutality. For all the years she had served at SHIELD, she had expected herself to be immune to visuals of bloodbath. But she knew that this was something else entirely.

In a nutshell, as Hill remarked, "Everything's on fire!".

She felt her heart rate increase as she recieved some peculiar signals.

She turned around and looked at Fury confusedly.

"Nick? " she called out.

"We're recieving signals of two more ships approaching the planet. And... "

"And what?" asked Tony, "Are they friendly?"

"It's... one of them is something like an alien war craft and... on of them is the Quinnjet." Hill frowned at her screen searching for some error or virus that might have invaded the high tech SHIELD's computer systems.

"What does this mean Sir? " she asked Fury who let out a long breath he didn't know he was holding. He almost smiled before saying,

"Winter is coming"

 **A/N: There you go! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I'd like to thank you all for all the support! I'm forever in debt for all the kindness all of you have shown me. I can never say this enough.** **The next chapter will be up before May 28. After so many intense chapters, it's going to be mild fluff. So stay tuned. I love all my readers.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hello everyone! I am so happy to present you all this chapter. Please be supportive as this was my favorite chapter to write. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I promise you the humour we were all missing so much in this chapter.** **NOTE: To avoid any confusion, italicized words in this chapter are Sif's thoughts.**

 **Train of Thoughts**

" _When you're about to die, the last face that flashes before your eyes, is either of the person you love the most or hate the most. And in the nastiest of cases, it is both."_

Her father's words rung in Sif's ears as she felt her surrounding blackening, her senses fading. As she faintly felt the sting of incessant blows of Proxima Midnight pounding into her gut, she remembered her long gone parents after centuries. She saw herself as a kid, sneaking out of dance lessons to play with her crossbow in the garden. Her first kiss, Haldor, having her heart broken by Haldor, how she was mocked by the men in Asgard for wanting to be more than what a woman was supposed to be, her fighting her way through ranks of soldiers and finally proving herself, her firsf day as shieldmaiden, her friendship with warriors three, her love for Thor, her banishment, the loss of her home, the loss of her friends. All the closed chapters and then an open one, a fresh one: Loki.

 **Loki.**

For the final of blows, during the constant block out, his face was all she saw. And her father's words was all she heard

 _"either of the person you love the most or hate the most"_

And at that point, with blood gushing out of her mouth as she lay on the ground, blinded by magic, every nerve in her body waiting to burst open, Sif did not care if it was love or hate that led Loki to be her in mind now. It felt like it was time to let go and stop resisting. She'd get her answers in Valhalla.

Sif was about to close her unseeing eyes on the world when suddenly, Loki's face was gone and she saw a blood red sky, and smoke, and then Proxima Midnight's face. Her vision had returned. Her senses were returning.

What was happening? Was Maw's magic wearing off or was it being countered? Sif tried to remember if they had brought any sorcerror from Kamar Taj here. They hadn't.

Seconds after Sif knew it, Proxima realised it too and raised her monodent to end Sif once and for all. But before she could impale the triangular head into Sif's torso, a scale, a two feet long, sharp ice scale cut through Proxima's back and jutted out of her chest.

Sif almost expected Proxima to flinch, or even act surprised, but she did not get that satisfaction. Proxima merely looked confused before she pulled out the ice dagger off her chest and turned around to see who was strong enough to throw ice so fast that it cut her invincible skin.

If only Sif could see the expression which invaded the face of the night skinned kill machine at that moment, she'd have gone to Valhalla out of contentment. For she could swear she heard Proxima Midnight gasp as she saw hundreds of thousands of Frost Giants approaching the battle scene like wild fire. But before that she saw Loki, who stood face to face with Proxima. And right behind him stood a much taller, fearsome and daunting female frost giant.

It didn't take much time for Proxima to overcome her shock and jump back into her aura of meannes and over-confidence.

"Have you forgotten what fun I'd had with you when you fell upon our realm Asgardian?" Proxima said menacingly, as she jerked her monodent and it took the shape of a double edged sword.

"Do you think this savage or your stupid brother can help you defeat me? Defeat Us?" she completed with a smirk which could downplay even Loki's.

But it couldn't. As Loki smirked back.

"Well for the first question, I have not forgotten anything" Loki said with a deadly flare entering his eyes and never escaping.

"And for the second one, my brother CAN..."

He paused to look at the female Jotun who had a resolute, unfeeling face. Unfazed by the insult, probably having heard it a million times before.

"And so can my sister..."

Loki observed as he saw a ghost of an emotion pass through her eyes, an unreadable emotion. He then stared Proxima right into her eyes to complete,

"But I. Won't. Need. Them. "

And with an ice scale in one hand and conjuring his silver dagger in another, Loki charged at her.

"You can't trick your way out with me"

And that's all Sif remembered him say before exhaustion and anaemia overcame her and she passed into a painless slumber.

S/C

Sif woke up in the healing facility of the ship. She was being tended to so she assumed that she was safe for now. And this didn't seem like Valhalla so she had survived after all.

She didn't know though, that she was terribly high on sedatives and painkillers. So much so, that most of the time she was completely incapable of controling her train of thoughts.

She felt frantic and panicked the words out of her mouth at her healer,

"What happened? Did we win?"

"Yes My Lady. Our side won. The jotun army saved us. And here we used to think that Asgard would never see that day." The lady healer smiled as she measured Sif's temperature.

"I need to see the Prince. Where is he?"

"I'm afraid you're not in the right health and frame of mind to see anyone. Just give it one day and-"

"I asked you a question you stupid high pitched sugar coated snub! Just answer it" she barked at the innocent well-meaning healer.

"Second floor. Third room." the healer pointed out the door terrified by her.

Sif felt all the rage melt away from her body as she realised what she had done.

"Oh thank you my Lady. That was very generous of you. I apologise for what I said I don't know what came over me" Sif clarified as she got up and made way to the door.

"Actually, I know what's come over y-"

"WHAT?!" Sif turned and jabbed at her again as her nostrils flared.

"Nothing" the healer whispered, again terrified.

Sif smiled, "I thank you for your services. You're extremely kind my Lady." she said as she left the room.

S/C

Loki was standing in his chamber which was a little too small for a Prince. Only in his leather pants, secure in the knowledge of privacy, he was cleaning and dressing the various wounds in his body. He never let anyone touch him. No doctor, no healer. If Loki hated something, it was his body being on display for everyone. If it was because he was insecure by always being belittled before Thor or being called extremely skinny throughout his adoloscence, or just because he always had a flair for being classy and thought he was better than anyone else, he didn't know. It was more likely the latter. He just prefered to not be physically pretentious. Which was an irony given that people believed him to be an attention seeking diva.

Right now Loki was tending to a particularly deep wound on his torso when the door to his chamber burst open.

"Loki! Hey! I need to talk to you. "

Loki froze. He knew it was physically impossible for a Frost Giant to freeze, but he did. And he froze big time.

Sif had never been intimidated by shirtless men. Being the only woman in armies. All those training programs and military camps had ensured that. So she didn't get uncomfortable when she witnessed Loki nursing his wound. The fact that she was so ecstatic about basically everything didn't help either. She started talking right away without thinking,

"So I feel that I'm bound to first of all-"

"Uh Lady Sif? " Loki's brain finally thawed enough to form words.

"What?! Why are you interrupting me?" Sif spat at him.

Loki coughed nervously and his voice came all choked out.

"Can we do this later? " he said still standing in the same position as before. A blood stained cotton in hand and a potion in another.

Sif narrowed her eyes at him, "Why?"

"Because I...am... rather... scantily dressed...? "

"Oh...OH!...Ohhhhh!" was all Sif could say before getting absolutely silent and transfixed. It was now that she noticed Loki's shirtless form. His pants a little too below the waist. It was something she had never seen before in any of the camps because Loki always used to disappear after battles or magicked himself new outfits. This was new, she thought. Once again, her train of thoughts started moving in a direction she never would have allowed as a Lady. She got transfixed at her place. Not a muscle moving after she tilted her head and started staring at the Prince. Somewhat...inappropriately.

" _Why did I never notice his shoulders? They're so broad...but not too broad. Okay that chest is as chiselled as a sculpture. Wait! Are those abs? I didn't know he had abs. Is it just me or are those scars actually adding in to the attractiveness?_

 _Attractiveness?! Woah easy there Lady Sniff!_

 _Lady Sniff? What am I thinking?"_

To say that Loki was confused would've been an understatement. He'd have known it better to cover himself with illusions but was too terrified at the moment. Had his words just killed Sif? Why wasn't she moving? He just waved his hands in front of Sif to see if she was still alive.

 _"Why is he showing me his fingers? His fingers are so long... And... arms. He has incredibly long arms. Never noticed those muscles. Hmm. That's because I've never seen them before. Of course. Because he's so classy. No, because he's shy... Wow leather pants!_ "

Loki frowned as he tried to find an explaination for this. Sif wasn't dead as he noticed her eye balls scouring his form. They started from his shoulders and went everywhere. What was she doing? Was she checking him for weapons? Was this a drill? For Norn's sake what was happening? He called again, "Sif?"

 _"Does he always wear leather pants? Wow those legs go on for miles. Why does everything he has so long? DON'T THINK LIKE THAT LADY STIFF!_

 _It's LADY SICK!_

 _Lady. *deep breath*. Sif._

 _Lady Sif. Leather Pants. Which is clinging so good to his thighs._

 _Also, his thighs..."_

Sif did not realise how it was abvious as her eyes travelled from Loki's chest to his trousers and stopped at his thighs. Loki couldn't take it anymore. He practically squealed,

"SIF!!!"

That finally brought Sif out of her reverie as she realised what she had been doing. _"Holy mother! I should get out now"_

"YES! Sorry! Yes, my Prince. I suppose I could use you for a minute"

"What? " said Loki looking horrified.

"Ex- _cuse_ you for a minute"

"Yeah. That'd be very kind"

"So I'm going now" Sif slightly turned towards the door. But continued,

"And I'd like to come for you later"

"I'm sorry?" Loki asked with confusion and pure terror written all over his face.

"I meant... I would come _looking_ for you later. Because.."

"You need to talk" Loki completed for her.

"Yes that. Okay... umm... okay bye! "

And with that, Sif ran out of the door.

And after the door closed behind her. When Loki was completely sure that she had left. He managed to smile his smallest of smiles. And then he started laughing.

 **A/N: How I finally loved writing this chapter! This chapter was fluffy and I know it's not what this story promises but I needed it. I hope you all would like it. The next chapter will be up very soon but it'll be shorter than the usual length. Till then, Okay... umm... okay bye!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Hey everyone! Thank you all for reviewing and following this story. You all don't know how much this really means to me. Right now it's the only good thing happening in my life.**

 **So again, thank you for all the support.** **A special shoutout to my friend Ananya who has been so encouraging and such a religious reader.**

 **F** **or the story, I know this is Sifki but like in the movies, Gamora is a very important part of the narrative, she has a part to play in this story too. I hope you all don't mind reading about her.** **This chapter is mostly interaction.**

 **On with the story:**

 **Get Help**

Once again everyone had assembled in the conference hall of the Avengers Headquarters. The location, lights and ambience was the same, but the energy of the room was completely different from the last time they had met there. This was a conference post victory. Or so they thought.

Thor out of all people was the most ecstatic. He had been talking about the glorious battle ever since he had gotten down from the ship. Much to everyone's annoyance, all he talked about was how he was right about Loki all along and how everyone was wrong in not trusting him. Valkyrie was indifferent to everything. This battle seeming only a small ordeal in the face of what she had already faced. Quill and Drax were ecstatic about the victory. Having forgotten that the ship had cameras installed, Quill naturally exaggerated his victory when the other Peter asked him how his experience was.

"Of course I took down a whole section of the army myself! Yes and Warlock too. It was a piece of cake"

"I don't remember any cake being there," Drax looked at him all seriously.

Mantis was confused about this conversation. She wondered why Peter was pretending and so put her hand on his arm to empath him.

"HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA" Mantis started roaring in her high pitched voice. "YOU WANT TO LAUGH SO HARD HAHAHHAHHAHA"

Peter Parker couldn't take it anymore and fell started laughing hysterically. Quill thought it was Drax's comment so he started laughing with him.

"There were cameras in the ship," Rocket interjected, "He saw you didn't do any of that. He did see how you fainted on the field though"

"I WAS MEDITATING WAYS TO REACT!" Quill screamed half at Rocket and half at Peter who had now stopped laughing.

Not because of Quill but because of the look Gamora gave all four of them.

Gamora was one or all of the three things. Sad, angry, scared and confused.

She was sad, because she had to fight a sister she loved again. Angry, because she couldn't do anything about it. Scared, because she knew what she had fought today, wasn't her sister. It was the assasin they both were raised to become. Unfeeling, conscience-less weapons and nothing more. And confused, because she didn't know how Thanos once again broke her. She'd get her answers now, having imprisoned her and brought her here.

Sif, on the other hand was in another world entirely. Still a little high from all those sedatives, she phased out much of what was happening. All she did was replay her awkward conversation with Loki in her mind again and again and be even more embarassed of herself everytime. _"WHAT WAS I THINKING?"_ She wanted to drill a hole in the ground and hide there until this phase passed. And yes, avoid Loki at all costs.

Loki was all things between amused and confused. He couldn't stop noticing Sif out of the corner of his eye every two minutes. His trickster heart wanted to tease her about the things she had said, to mock her. That's what he'd naturally do. But another part was scared of confronting her. It was something to do with nervousness which he didn't understand. Why was this getting so complicated? And since when did he started caring so much about... sentiments?

Amidst all the commotion, Maria Hill shashayed through the crowds to the podium.

Loki rolled his eyes. Only HE was allowed to sashay and no one else. He was requested to stand right next to the stage. He had figured his feat was going to be acknowledged. That explained his smug expression and air of superiority.

"Ahem ahem everyone here is requested to please cease all conversation right now. Nick! Here."

She got down and Nick Fury stepped on the podium.

"Soldiers, we once again today have assembled." Not to celebrate, but to acknowledge this small success and... " Fury stopped and looked at Natasha, who nodded as she narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to not speak what she had asked him to. He continued,

"To acknowledge this small success and the hero who brought it upon us. Loki Odinson, we would like to thank you for your efforts. I'd ask but I don't think you're in the mood to say anything-'

"Actually I am" Loki interrupted and sashayed his way to the podium. He made to take the mic but Fury didn't flinch. So Loki decided to just completely do away with the mic. He had a whole speech prepared. Loki wasn't Loki until he rubbed it in their faces that he was, after all, their saviour. Tony, Steve and Sam followed Loki's gait as he seavely made way to the podium with a hint of annoyance. Bucky looked bored as usual. Wanda was standing with Natasha.

"Firstly, I'd like to thank Sir Rocket, Agent Romanoff and Agent Barnes-"

"Alright, that's enough. We don't have all day" Fury interrupted Loki thereby taking his revenge. "I'd like to announce that we'll be rewarding his efforts in our own way we'll discuss later. He said as he tried to subtly push Loki's asgardian form down the platform. Loki didn't budge as he narrowed his eyes dangerously at Fury. So Fury just continued talking.

"Now, I'd like to applaud the efforts of all the soldiers specially Gamora Thor and Lady Sif who both outstood a number of enemies all on their own and gave a fair fight. This is just one win and we barely won at all. So, we can't rest. Dismmised."

Everyone started dispersing while Loki confronted Fury. Thor joined them.

"That was rude. I thought midgardians were more evolved that this."

"When? When you tried to crush them with your boots or when they crushed you with their boots?"

"When I saved their arses" Loki tilted his head at Fury narrowing his eyes. "But still, what is the reward you're going to offer me? Is it some weapon? Or perhaps a space craft?"

"No. Well at first we were going to give you... nothing. But then your brother told us a boring story and that gave Hill an idea. We're goint to let you- Get help! "

Loki looked confusedly at Thor. Who just smiled. Apparently, he really liked this idea.

"What the-"

Steve was passing by and before Loki could complete he casually interjected,

"Language!" and left.

"Yes we're going to hire a psychological counsellor for you to deal with your things and it's mandatory. We're rewarding you 3 sessions of therapy. Then you can officially join the Avengers"

"That's stupid! We didn't even have those in Asgard"

"And look where it had got you. You're going to have to attend this. That's it. Dismissed." And with that Fury waltzed out.

With Thor and Loki the only ones remaining. Loki was in full mood of lashing out at Thor for this abominable mess he got him into before he was caught unawares. Thor placed a hand on Loki's shoulder and cradled his neck with the other.

"Loki I haven't said this enough. But finally, I'm so proud of you. Mother will be proud too"

"Yeah. Now give us a kiss" Thor and Loki both started laughing.

"You say that everytime I'm trying to be serious"

And all of Loki's anger melted into a pool of an emotion he didn't understand. He didn't know what he'd do if he started speaking so all he managed to say was,

"Thanks. I should go. Check the- uh whatever this counselling thing is" he made to leave.

"Oh I thought you were going to go make mopey eyes at Sif again"

"Sorry?"

"Nah I know it's nothing. You just happen to be looking at her whenever I happen to be looking at you it's pure coincidence. "

"I don't know what you're talking about" Loki coughed and his voice waivered as he gushed out of the door.

Thor smiled at his brother's nervous retreating back. Loki was his brother again. He was coming back. Just a few more steps.

"Both of you are adorable. Like a pair of ugly socks"

Thor turned to find Drax there standing extremely still.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm practising my invisibilty"

"Thank God I thought you were paralysed" Thor smiled.

"No just invisible"

"So cool" Thor grinned.

"Cool? I think it's pretty hot in here. Asgardians are weird"

"Yeah they're a bit unique" Thor shrugged his shoulders. "Okay bye"

S/C

 **At a bench beside the common training grounds**

Sif was standing in the common training grounds whetting her Moon Cleaver. When she saw Gamora approach her she got up. Seeing each other fight in the battle field had ignited fires of mutual respect in both of them. Thor and Valkyrie were training on the other side. Loki was in the observing arena looking agitated because he was joined by Peter. Everyone but Loki and Sif noticed that Loki and Sif stole glances at each other.

"Hey! you feeling better?" Gamora joined Sif on the bench.

"Yes I...heal fast." Sif smiled back.

"Mm hmm"

"You fight really well. I had not had the pleasure of fighting with many women in Asgard"

"Really? I always thought Asgardians were very advanced"

"Well yeah in all the things but this" Sif finished whetting her sword and while keeping it in her scabbard, her eyes again involuntarily went towards Loki who was now talking seriously with Peter Parker.

"Why are the blue ones always so hard to deal with?"

Sif turned to gave Gamora a look which said "keep talking"

"That Loki reminds me so much of my sister"

"The one you took captive? She is your sister?"

"Yeah, we were both adopted by Thanos. He used to prefer me over her and used to replace her body parts with macines everytime she lost to me in a fight. And I just kept on winning. Proving myself to be the best. Everyone used to make fun of her. And now she's here, hating me. And I'm at the point where I've completely lost her"

"That _does_ remind me of Loki in so many ways" Sif half laughed.

"Yeah and it seems like he came through for Thor. I am glad at least someone did. Still gives me hope somehow. It's funny how we don't realise how much we're affecting someone by being selfish. Some come back from whatever void they had fallen into for the better, some for the worse, and some don't come back at all," Gamora paused looking at the ground. Sif was at a loss for words.

"Look now I bored you to death and I don't even know you" Gamora laughed without it reaching her eyes. "Perhaps even I could use some of that therapy things terras have come up with"

"Not at all, talking to you was... great. It feels great when someone treats you as more than a soldier or shieldmaiden. Most of my friends are either long dead or too busy or... complicated. I could use another friendship"

Gamora nodded along,

"So would ypu like to see who's a better fighter?" Gamora asked gesturing towards the vacant training arena.

Sif laughed at the blatant challenge

"Yeah I HAVE already fought your kind and a thousand other alien species multiple times but don't let that intimidate you"

"Nothing ever does"

And both Gamora and Sif started walking towards the arena together.

 **At the Observing balcony**

Loki stood leaning on the railing looking at all the different fighters training with each other. Occasionally, his gaze travelled to Sif who was now whetting her sword.

"Hey Mr. Odinson"

 _"No, not that spider kid again"_ thought Loki.

"I saw everything that happened on Knowhere. Rocket even told me how you planned everything out."

"That's good to hear" Loki fake smiled and nodded at Peter.

"Yeah and what you did was so... _cool_ " Peter said. But it was the way he said it that made Loki uncomfortable. At the word 'cool' he widened his eyes and gave Loki a very cheeky grin. As if it was suggestive of something.

"I'm sorry is that supposed to mean anything?" Loki slightly frowned at Peter hoping he'll be intimidated enough to leave him alone.

"It's a pun!"

"...what?"

"It was cool, you know? Ice is cool and you used ice daggers and ice people"

 _"Used Ice people? What. An. Idiot."_ Loki thought. All he did was make a blank face at Peter. That kid had some courage. He was _still_ not intimidated one bit.

"Okay so maybe you didn't find it _that_ funny. But, you'll agree that it was... low-key funny" and once again the sentence was followed by crazy wide eyes and a cheeky grin. "I did it again. It was a pun on your name" he looked at Loki expectantly expecting a laugh.

Loki sighed.

"Where do you learn this stuff?" Loki asked in disbelief. "Spiders are supposed to be intelligent insects"

As Loki remarked Peter's lack of sense of humour, his eyes once again drifted to Sif.

"Woah your heartbeat increases so much when you look at her"

"What now?"

"I mean your heartbeat is already faster than is humans but when you looked at Lady Sif your heart started beating really wildly"

"Stop making stupid assumptions. Spider man, more like Stupid Man" Loki's patience was now being tested.

"It's _Spider_ Man and I have all my senses hightened because of my spider abilities. I can percieve things better than other humanoids and I just heard your heartbeat get _real_ fast"

Loki didn't know what to say so he just narrowed his eyes at Parker.

"If you would excuse me I've-"

"It's okay I ship you both real hard"

"You what?"

"You and Lady Sif. I ship you together"

"You have a ship? And you want to ship me and Sif togther?"

"No no no! Ship means... how do I explain it to you? I mean I think it'll be nice if you two start going out togther"

"Go out where? Where do you want to send us boy? And why?"

"No go out as in date?"

"What date? You're not making any sense!"

Peter got confused himself and thought that it was best to change the topic.

"N-nothing. It's nothing. Hey! I have good news"

"Don't you have to be somewhere else? Like with your mother?"

"Okay so first of all, I live with my aunt May and both my parents have passed away. Second, no offence Mr. Odinson but it's rude to interrupt people. And third, the good news is that my aunt has said I can be friends with you after you therapy"

For a moment Loki was taken aback by the knowledge of Peter's loss. But this surprise or guilt lasted only till he mentioned therapy. It was Loki's turn to state points.

"Well, so first of all, you're too young to be my friend. Second, I won't attend whatever 'therapy' this is. And third,... " Loki paused with his finger in the air.

"...yes?"

"Well I don't have a third. Deal with it"

"Well Loki, can I call you Loki? I think we're close enough to have first name basis now"

 _"When did we ever get close for Norn's sake what is this boy?"_ thought Loki.

"First of all, in human years, you're like 16 so that makes you younger than I. I did the math. Second, you might think therapy isn't a good idea but it helps a lot. Trust me, both Aunt May and I got help after my uncle passed away and it was worth it"

"Yeah so first, I haven't got any issues. Second, no I am NOT younger than you are and third, stop speaking like this it makes me feel like I'm in my father's court room again with his stupid minister." Suddenly Loki felt the urge to justify his decision to this kid.

" _You_ might not have issues. Maybe all the stuff of practically jumping into a wormhole and thoughts of world domination and all those childhood years and hardships you've been through are totally behind you now, but even the stablest of person can use catharsis in a time of war. Getting help, is not humiliating."

If Peter had a mic at that time, he'd have dropped it.

 _"Damn this stupid kid won this one. And they call ME silvertongue"_ thought Loki.

"Fine I'll go" Loki said as he rolled his eyes.

He flinched as the short heighted Peter kept a hand on his shoulder. Loki made a disgusting face now completely annoyed by him.

"And that's what friends are for" said Peter giving Loki another cheeky smile. Loki rolled his eyes again before finally deciding to leave for his chambers. He muttered a small "excuse me" before making his way for the stairs leaving Peter behind.

S/C

Screams and screeches of Nebula resonated in the room. There she lay, halfway dismantled and suspended mid air as Maw moved the burning splinter in her thigh.

"You'll NEVER succeed. She'll know it's not me" Nebula barked through her sobs.

"Oh she will" Maw smiled at her. "But it'll be too late by then. "The universe has been denied mercy for too long...but it's not far away."

 **A/N: TRIGGER WARNING: I want this chapter to be a gentle reminder to everyone that they're all loved, needed and important. And there is no shame, or entitlement in asking for help. And it's never too late to do so either. Loki had jumped off the bifrost at a point in his life which was debatably a suicide attempt and a lot happened to him at the the hands of Thanos. But he still pryed his way through all of that because he knew somewhere in his heart that he was still loved and was important. Just like everyone is. So whenever you think otherwise, reaching out is the easiest and wisest thing to do. And it's worth it.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hey everyone! I just want to remind you all how much of a positive influence you've been in my life. All of you who ask me to update and keep writing are like a lifeline to me. Saying that, I might go on a temporary hiatus again till July. One of the instances where my real life returns to haunt me. I might still update but I've got to study again. I promise I'll update immediately after my entrance is over.** **This is another goodbye chapter so naturally it's long. Please bear with it and read it till the end.**

 **Blemishes in the Blue**

"So, you will not cooperate with me?" Loki's counsellor was thoroughly agitated at his behaviour.

"I have cooperated as much as I could" Loki offered a smug smile in return.

"Hmm. So is it a mere coincidence that in all my evaluations and tests ALL the results are neutral?" the grey haired lady asked in slight disbelief, smiling a sarcastic smile which also had a hint is sympathy.

Loki smiled a convincingly genuine smile, "It's just, I'm very balanced emotionally. And you haven't gotten neutral results every time. If it's any consolation, I have genius level intellect and not average level intellect."

Dr. Aubrey Wilhem was many things, but not gullible. She had worked with many felons, criminals, prisoners, soldiers and all kinds of people before. But she knew Loki was sly and intelligent enough to figure out the algorithms of her quiz and manipulate her result. Master of manipulation indeed. But she wasn't going to let him win just yet.

Loki, on the other hand found this old woman to be highly condescending. She wasn't doing her bloody job right. According to his research, therapy was meant to be…therapeutic. He was expecting he'd get to rant on and on about everything wrong with his life and his counsellor would try to make sense of his life to him. That would've been therapeutic. Not having to answer personal uncomfortable questions about his life and relationship. But this was so much more fun, albeit slightly annoying. How on earth did this stupid woman expect Loki, the God of Lies, to give "honest answers"?

"So you think you're emotionally balanced?"

"Yes"

"And have absolutely nothing to talk about or work on?"

"No. I qualified all your tests I think we're done here."

Mrs. Wilhem smiled through her wrinkles. A rather….condescending smile. An evil smile. A dangerous one.

"No Mr. Odinson. That was just phase one. I'm so happy. I didn't think we'd actually have any time to proceed to phase two. It's my favourite phase. It's called- Interactions. " Wilhem picked up the first phone next to her.

Loki pressed his lips into a thin line. He did not see this coming.

S/C

"What do you want from me?" Nebula asked from behind the glass cage with nothing but some strange emotion in her eyes, an emotion resembling sin and cruelty but not exactly.

"You Nebula YOU. I want you back." Gamora replied, barely maintaining her façade of strength and composure. She was sitting right opposite Nebula across the glass wall on the ground with her legs crossed before her. Knees in the air. Hands entwined before her knees. She was like a mirror image of Nebula.

"Sister. I want you back too. You see? We were led astray. We forgot our goal and our motive. Our father." Nebula's face became a mixture of soft and impatient. Gamora frowned wide eyed.

Nebula extended her hand and pressed it against the glass, "It is our duty to be at Thanos' side. He needs us. He needs you. And you know he's right. Come back Gamora"

Gamora steeled her features, "Just tell me all the information you have and we'll show mercy."

"Or what? You'll torture me?" Nebula shook her head like a mother does while scolding her child. "Tzk tzk tzk you don't have it in you…..sister," the venom in that last word was enough to throw Gamora off edge. She got up and left the cell. And did not turn back.

S/C

"Thank you Captain Rogers, for joining us. I'm sure you'll be able to help Loki fully come to terms with himself." She smiled warmly at Steve.

"I AM fully in terms with myself" Loki replied squarely.

"Sure you are" Dr. Wilhem said as if she was trying to hold off a toddler with the promise of a lollipop while still looking at Steve.

Both Steve and Loki looked bored and agitated. Neither wanted to be a part of this. But Steve couldn't refuse when an elderly woman requested him to help a fellow individual to nurture the collective fate of the universe through his words.

"It was my pleasure Dr. Wilhem"

"Please call me Aubrey dear. And this will only take two minutes. Now I want you to say a few honest words about Loki to him." Wilhem sat with the notepad ready on her desk.

Steve thought for some seconds. He took every task seriously even when it was something as random as this.

"Well I think that he is annoyingly selfish. But at the same time cunning. He can be a menace. And he is crazy in a non-threatening kind of way." Steve stopped.

"And?"

He sighed. "And…." He looked at Wilhem expectantly. Loki felt so bored he could sleep. And Asgardians didn't sleep that often.

"Anything positive?"

"I did say he is crazy in a non-threatening way" Steve didn't want to continue when he saw Wilhem's creepy/expectant smile combined with a single raised eyebrow.

"AND…I think" Steve drew a breath and looked at Loki who looked calm. At that point he remembered all Loki had done for them in the recent past. His efforts, his stakes and felt something close to guilt for antagonizing him all along.

"And I think that despite all of this, there is still hope. I know someone. Who had also been made to kill, who was also brainwashed. Now obviously it's not the same thing but you can see a few similarities there. So when Thor vouched for you, I believed him. Because I knew under all the leather you might still be a person. Despite all your deeds, there is still a little bit of blue in the green of your eyes" He ended like a martyr. Proud of himself. Of him taking the high road. Dr. Wilhem looked ecstatically pleased. All was good. All was well.

"They're actually red" Loki simply stated.

"What?" Steve looked at him in confusion.

"The eyes of all Jotuns is blood red. This is just an illusion."

Steve nodded at Loki for a second as if fully understanding this important piece of knowledge. Then he turned to Wilhem and said,

"Who are we kidding? He's an utter and complete a-"

"Language!" Loki interjected.

"I was going to say abomination."

Uncomfortable silence followed. Loki had won another round. Aubrey wasn't going to take it lying down.

S/C

"I know you're hurting Nebula. And I, am getting desperate. I don't want to do this to you." Natasha's eyes pierced through the glass cage into Nebula's person. If looks could kill, Nebula would've been dead ninety times over.

"You think you can intimidate me? Or manipulate me?" Nebula let out a dry laugh. "You're too weak to understand our vision"

"We know you became our captive on your own." Natasha stood in front of the glass cage. Feet 10 inches apart and hands folded in front of her. Taser in hand.

"Shall I be surprised?" Nebula smiled back.

"No, you don't have to be. You CAN however be shocked" Widow showed her the taser. "You either tell us why you're here or... you know I will not hesitate"

One end of Nebula's lips extended into a smirk. "Go ahead"

Natasha pressed the button. But Nebula didn't even flinch.

"You can do better human! You can torture me ALL you want. But I've already told Gamora why I'm here." Nebula said matter-of-factly.

"And why is that?"

"Thanos wants his daughter back. I'm here to take her back with me"

"And you'll do that from that cell of yours?"

"Why not?"

Natasha turned around and left the premises. She'd have to look for another way to get the information out. If there was any.

S/C

Loki was sitting in the library with a few books of mystic arts trying to steal notes and spells from them. If only he could figure out the mechanics of their teleportation. Not that he needed it, but he wanted to know.

"Loki I need to speak with you." Gamora appeared from behind the shelves followed by Natasha. They both took a seat across from him. Loki half expected half hoped that Sif would accompany them. She didnt.

"What is it? I am in no mood of going on another secret, life threatening mission as of yet"

"It's about Nebula. We need you to try to talk to her"

"You need me to extract information?"

"Yes. Even I'm not able to get through to her. I went through all her case files we could find and found all her soft points and weaknesses. I sat with her for three hours and still nothing" Natasha told him calmly.

Loki frowned. "That doesn't sound quite right. You're quite good at extracting information" he said as he reminisced his first conversation with Natasha and how she had played him.

"Exactly" Gamora said "Even I have not been able to stir any emotions into her. That's a first in a long time"

"Maybe whatever she's telling you is true. Maybe she really doesn't know anything"

"Maybe. But I feel like she's hiding something. It just doesn't seem right " Gamora exclaimed.

"So what we want you to do is try talking to her. We hear that you're the 'Master of Manipulation'. Thor told us you used to interrogate prisoners quite effectively... until you became one" Natasha said mockingly.

"Was that last part really necessary?"

"Couldn't help myself" Natasha smirked. Loki rolled her eyes.

"My therapist says that I'm not allowed to talk to any toxic elements which includes prisoners and enemies" Loki remembered as he made a disgusted expression. "Which is why I'll be more than happy to help you"

"Okay so here are all the files we could g-" Natasha started opening several files in the tablet she was carrying.

"Agent Romanoff..."

"What?" she looked up.

"I can read minds"

Both Gamora and Natasha fought their urge to facepalm.

S/C

"It's nice to finally meet you Mantis. I've heard so much about you." Aubrey smiled at Mantis.

"Seriously, why her? We haven't even met. She probably doesn't even know my name." Loki asked confused. There was something about this antenna woman that annoyed him. Perhaps it was the overload of innocence that got to him or her constant idiotic smile.

"No Mr. Loki I know you" she smiled wide eyed.

"No she's not a part of your evaluation" Dr. Aubrey said with mischief in her eyes. Loki frowned. It was his thing.

"Then why is she here?" Loki narrowed his eyes and tried to stare Aubrey down through the slits.

"I read about her capabilities on Princess Shuri's website. She is, what they call in space, an empath." Aubrey's smile and eyes widened to the point that it didn't look natural.

Loki knew where this was going and he did NOT like it.

"I don't understand. What are you trying to say?" Loki asked from under his breath suspiciously.

"What I'm trying to say is- given your inclination towards lying and manipulation," Aubrey put both her hands on the desk and stared Loki down with her ageing eyes. "I have gotten Mantis approved to hold your arm while you participate in my further tests"

"No. NO!"

"Yes. YES!"

"This is a violation of my rights. This is illegal"

"I've gotten this approved by both the Director and the nominal head of your community that is your brother"

"And they're both stupid" loki said as he lightly banged the table in front of him and grinded his teeth together. Trying to futilely intimidate Wilhem.

Mantis put her hand on Loki's shoulder.

"HUH! He's TERRIFIED"

S/C

"Nebula. Remember me?" Loki smiled at her through the glass cage. Gamora and Natasha both stood behind him.

"You once graced the cage with your presence on my father's bidding" Nebula approached the barrier until she was inches away from Loki "and failed".

Loki smiled in return, "Or did I? Then why am I on this side of the cage? And why are you my prisoner?"

"You're on the wrong side. Of both the cage, and the war. And somewhere in your heart you know it. You're terrified Asgardian. You. Are. Terrified." Nebula got closer to the glass cage. Close enough that her nose now almost touched the glass. Loki didn't back down.

"You're here to know my secrets? Let me tell you one. " Nebula lowered her pitch to a whisper.

"Thanos knows your secret. And he will take back what's his."

Loki backed down from the cage and gulped. His breath came out all ragged.

"What did she say? LOKI! What did she say?" Gamora questioned him through her teeth before Natasha stopped her with the gesture of her hand.

Loki then braced himself. He put one hand on the glass and concentrated his magic on it manipulating matter. He then shoved his hand through the glass and took hold of her head. Both Loki and Nebula flinched as he saw images of her recent past. When he withdrew his hand, such was the force that they both were thrown off and fell on there backs.

Loki got up on his elbows and looked at Nebula who had already stood up and was looking daggers at him. And was she smiling? He was panting and looked confused and scared. His eyes were round like saucers.

"Loki!" Widow shrugged him from behind. "What did you see?"

He looked up at both Natasha and Gamora.

"That is not Nebula"

Natasha frowned while Gamora looked at the creature in the cage in disbelief. She didn't know if she should've been relieved or scared for her sister.

"And... "

"And? And what?" Natasha asked impatiently while Gamora was still overcoming the shock.

Loki finally sighed, "And Thanos has the Orb"

 **A/N: So here you go. The unlucky number 13 has brought bad luck upon the avengers.** **I'll try to update the next chapter this week and then go on hiatus.** **How will Loki survive his therapy sessions? What'll happen to Gamora? What will Thanos do now that he has the orb? Return to find out because the story is getting intense.** **Also, I missed writing about Sif in this chapter and maybe you all missed her too. Forgive me. This chapter was important for the plot and she didn't have a part in it. But the next chapter will have a semi fluff Sifki interaction. [Spoiler: it'll involve Mantis** ]


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hey everyone I am back. I couldn't stay away from you all for even a month. I don't have much to say except that I am really thankful for all the reviews and follows I have gotten from you all. It truly means so much to me.**

 **SPOILERS FOR IW: So Tom Hiddleston just sort of confirmed that Loki is permanently dead. And I have been crying on and off since. It's just too much for me to handle. But I hope we can together keep him alive in our hearts and through fan fiction because that's what he deserves. He deserved better and Tom deserved better.**

 **As for this chapter, Peter makes a comeback.**

 **Forced Revelations**

Loki, Gamora and Nebula looked at each other in stunned silence for a whole minute. The revelation that their prisoner wasn't Nebula and moreover, that Thanos had the orb had left them all stunned and confused.

"We need to inform Fury" said Natasha while helping Loki up, finally bringing everyone to their senses. Gamora just nodded without saying a word.

"And what about her?" asked Loki gesturing at what looked like Nebula. Finally regaining his composure. If there was one thing he did well, it was veil emotions. Which was of absolute terror right now.

Natasha shook her head as her face faced the ground, "We only follow orders"

The trio started walking out of the interrogation chamber as Loki muttered under his breath, "I do what I want"

Natasha was about to roll her eyes at this as Loki's alarm watch beeped. "Great now I have to go to that stupid invasive therapy!" Loki said crushing his teeth together.

"Indeed, you do what you want" Natasha smirked while Loki was the one to roll his eyes.

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"Thank you for joining us Your Majesty. I expect you know we were here to talk about your brother and his….. _inclinations_ "

"Your Majesty? Seriously? Stop being so dramatic Wilhem he isn't _your_ king" Loki eyed Dr. Aubrey with disgust as he sat between Mantis and Thor. Mantis' palm was on Loki's wrist.

When Loki had entered Dr. Wilhelm's office today, he had found Thor already sitting there having a laugh with Mantis and Wilhelm. The million emotions of fear, self-loathing and helplessness had condensed into a single emotion of disgust and anger.

"Uhh the pleasure is mine Doctor. You can call me Thor if you like, everyone else here does, really! Also, I appreciate the time you're taking to help my brother." Thor cut in in his deep musical voice, trying to futilely diffuse the tension.

"She isn't helping me she is wasting my time. And yours too. We have more important things at hand. Matters of universal importance. And here we are playing 'Never have I ever'. This is ridiculous!" Loki remarked menacingly.

Mantis banged her fist on Aubrey's desk and her eyes blazed with rage,

"Loki is VERY angry right now and he feels like turning you in a bee or an ant" she said angrily.

"And this therapy is needed to resolve these very anger issues. This wouldn't take that long anyway. " Aubrey looked daggers at Loki who retaliated by looking her dead in her eyes. He had never felt this vulnerable in his entire life. Damn this mortal.

"Now Thor, I will be asking you questions about your brother and I trust you to answer them honestly. The thing is, Loki never tells the truth in any of the answers so you'd have to do that for me." Wilhelm smiled.

"I am not a bloody case study!" Loki screamed, not able to contain himself anymore at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. At Wilhelm and Thor's apologetic expression, he then settled down with a huff.

"Alright let's get this over with" he finally resorted with a huff.

"So, Mr. Thor I would first like to know how well you know your brother"

"Oh is it like a test?" Thor asked enthusiastically.

"Yes of sorts.."

"YES! I will ace this test! I have never scored perfectly on a test before you know it brother, this time I'll do better than you. Now I never cared about education and tests much before but one day Stark's son explained to me how important they were and here I have a chance at them again" Thor smiled clearly excited at this new prospect of proving himself academically for the first time.

Mantis facepalmed herself, "I just felt like doing that when you were speaking. Loki must be feeling that you're very stupid" Mantis said now smiling wide eyed.

"Okay, " Dr. Wilhelm interrupted to distract the brothers from thoughts of brawling each other's face out. "First question: who was your brother's first ever romantic interest or crush?"

Loki agitated, clearly uncomfortable with the question,

"What kind of question is this? How is this relevant to-"

"Shhhhh! I'll decide what's relevant and what's not" Wilhelm chastised. There was a glint of mischief in her eyes. Loki knew that she was taking her revenge on him for manipulating her tests.

"Yes Thor?" she smiled as both Loki and Mantis narrowed their eyes at her. Mantis did so with a hint of impatience and fear.

"Uhhhh...Freya?"

Both Loki and Mantis rolled their eyes.

"Forseti?"

Loki and Mantis stared ahead with utter disgust and boredom.

"F... andral?"

Loki threw his hands up in the air exasperatedly,

"Wow!" he remarked. "I can't believe you're _this_ clueless about me. I could count the name of your female friends on my fingers"

"No no no no...no. I know you brother let me try some more. So yes, romantic interest. Who were the fair maidens we used to hang out with? Let's just see" Thor pretended to be thoughtful, "You always had a thing for dark haired men and women didn't you? If I recall correctly, weren't you involved with Sif?"

There was a sharp intake of breath. Loki felt sick at the mentions of Sif's name. Even though he knew this was the wrong answer, he could not help his reaction. By now he had realized that if not anything, he had developed a little soft spot for the Shieldmaiden. He felt his heartbeat quicken. Loki quickly veiled his own reaction but he knew he couldn't control Mantis. Everyone noticed how Mantis' cheeks coloured a deep shade of crimson as she lay a heart on her hands.

Thor smiled a cheeky smile at Loki. Wilhelm narrowed her eyes as she started scratching on her notepad.

" _Has the hots for Lady Sif_ " she spoke out loud while writing it down.

"I DO NOT-" Loki took a deep breath, "SIGYN! It was Sigyn! And it didn't last. Get over it." Loki's said in a panicked, raspy voice.

"Aah I was close enough to pass the test"

"IT'S NOT THE SAME TEST" he screamed at Thor, "Are we done now?" He asked Wilhelm while she was still noting things down while reciting them.

"Full of rage. Hormonal. Possible reasons: puberty" she mused aloud while writing. Loki just looked at her, his eyes now showing a mixture of exasperation and shock.

"Peeew-berty? I'm 1500 years old. What is wrong with you?"

"So in human years you're a teenager. Maybe that's why you're in your emo rebel phase"

Wilhelm pulled out a file from underneath her desk and went on explaining how human hormones work and how it might be similar for Asgardians at this age to Thor. Loki stared at the ceiling feeling defeated. Then his eyes wandered to glance at Thor who looked very thoughtful. He looked serious as he tried to understand Wilhelm's reasoning. He had even furrowed his brows in concentration.

"Thor? You're not actually believing this woman are you? THOR! You know that that's not how we age right?"

Thor completely ignored him.

"Do you have any idea of your brother's sexuality Thor?"

Loki's head twisted to look at Wilhelm like a whip,

"Oh my GOD why on the nine realms do you have to know that?"

"It's on the test"

"You're doing this to embarass me! Why are you even interested in what or who I hold carnally appealing? Are you a pedophile?"

"You're older than I am Loki. Don't let the grey hair stray you" Aubrey smiled at Loki, that same condescending smile.

"I thought I was a teenager" he smirked viciously.

Thor kept a hand on Loki's shoulder,

"It's okay to feel rage and embarrassment at this age brother. I'll explain you how things work when two people grow up to like each other as adults. Later," Thor gave Loki a brotherly but suggestive look although he wasn't looking.

"And as for your question Doctor, right now Loki doesn't fully understand what sexuality actually means you know? We haven't had the time to talk about it yet" said Thor seriously wrinkling his nose.

Wilhelm simply nodded at Thor. Mantis turned to look at Loki who was still looking at Wilhelm with an "I'm so done" expression. Then, he smiled. They wanted information, they'd get information.

He ever so slowly turned his head to look at Thor.

"Thor?"

"Yes brother?"

Loki looked at him determinedly, frustration clearly visible on his face. He knew Thor was an oaf, he knew Thor still considered him a "little brother". But he did _not_ know that he was this literal about it. He was less than a year younger than him for Norn's sake. This was his chance of giving his brother a heart attack. Not better than stabbing, he thought, but more convenient. He turned to Wilhelm and said,

"I am bisexual. Tried, tested and verified"

Thor laughed, "He doesn't know what he means" but then he looked at Loki's serious face and he just knew he wasn't lying. The realization that his little brother had already engaged in unspeakable acts with at least two people shocked him to the brink of a heart attack. He stood in stunned silence as the words 'tried tested and verified' resonated in his mind.

"Uhh wow brother that's g-good to hear that you've finally become a man now. Twice now eh?" Thor tried, but failed to give Loki an appreciative look.

"Twice? More like, I've lost count over the years provided that it's been centuries since I-"

"THAT'S all... the information I'd need. Thank you Loki" Wilhelm interjected shooting him a fake smile. Thor was on the verge of having a heart attack. Who had corrupted his little brother so early? He then turned to whisper to Wilhelm.

"Do you think such pre mature indulgence like this can result in hormone induced rage?"

"Maybe. I'd have to confirm with an Asgardian healer" Wilhelm whispered back. Loki heard both of them and rolled his eyes.

"I hate you for all this stupidity." Loki turned and told Thor.

"I understand brother" Thor smiled at Loki.

"He's lying," Mantis said.

"What?"

"He loves you. A lot. I can feel it. And he also feels guilty for hurting you and not ever telling you that he is very thankful that you haven't ever given up on him" Mantis said quickly but with moist eyes, Loki was trying hard to suppress his treacherous emotions when she continued, "He loves you so much, it's like, I can feel it. That you're all that he's left with... and that's enough"

Loki closed his eyes in embarrassment and then started looking in the opposite direction. Wilhelm smiled. Thor's eyes transfixed at Loki as his man tears threatened to show.

"I will... leave now Doctor. Thank you for all your help," Thor smiled at Aubrey before making his way out the door.

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Loki was in the elevator about to go to the conference hall when he saw Sif and Thor approaching. He hoped they would take the stairs but his hopes were shattered when Thor called out,

"Hold up!"

" _Oh no not these two right now"_ was all Loki could think before Thor barged in with Sif in cue. Now, Sif didn't want to face Loki right now either. At least Thor was here so she wouldn't have to face him.

"Hello brother"

"Morning Thor. Sif" he nodded at each of them. "Loki" Sif curtsied making minimum eye contact.

Before the elevator door could close Thor got out, "Oh I just remembered that I have a thing to do umm.. I'll join you guys upstairs" he shot Loki a cheeky smile as if he was doing him a favour. Loki glared at Thor wide eyed. Loki fought the urge to stab him while Sif tried calm her racing heart.

" _Damn that Odinson"_ their thoughts resonated as they both stared straight ahead avoiding all. The elevator was eerily quiet and cold for some reason, but this wasn't stopping Loki's nervous form from sweating. Meanwhile, Sif already sweaty from her long day of training was having chills sent down her spine and she wasn't sure if the cold was the reason. Curtsey called for small talk, logic said that a minute in an elevator with an ally wasn't something to be scared of, but their hearts said 'PANICK PANICK PANICK'

Loki reminding himself of his silver tongue (which he definitely thought he could use in more way than one), resorted to breaking the silence.

"With all the air conditioning here, it's pretty hot don't you think?" he tried to sport a confident smile. Unusually proud of himself.

Genuine confusion clouded Sif's current state of erraticness as she raised a mindless question,

"I thought it was physically impossible for you to feel climactic hea-" Sif abruptly halted when she realized was indirectly implying. _"Why Sif why would you say that?!"_ she mentally chastised herself. It was followed by an awkward, barely there chuckle on Loki's part.

This failed attempt at conversation taught them both that it was best to remain silent and stare straight ahead for what felt like an eternity before the elevator door finally opened and they both got out in a hurry. Which resulted in their sides brushing which caused sparks of electricity to shoot through their veins. Something had to be done about this, Loki mused.

Sif and Loki reached Fury's office as Loki held the door for Sif to enter. Gamora, Quill, Rocket and Brunnhilde were already seated there with Fury. Maria Hill was looking out the window and turned upon hearing their footsteps.

"Where is Thor?" she asked.

"Present!" The God of Thunder stormed into the room slightly huffing.

"Did you just _run_ 24 floors up?" Val asked.

"I didn't want to be late"

"What about your thing?" asked Sif.

"Fitness, is my thing!" he replied. And that's when Sif regretted the oath she took which barred her from physically harming Thor as Loki shot daggers at him with his eyes.

"So here are the orders for you. Lady Sif, as you were the one who initially delivered the aether, you have to be the one to bring it here. You have to leave for Knowhere in two days. Loki, you will have to take Lady Sif through one of your secret passageways because we don't have any time to lose. The Guardians will follow you shortly as backup in case you need any. Any questions?"

Loki and Sif both shook their heads at the same time wondering why the universe was reacting this way. They both tried to steal a glance at each other at the same time and immediately looked away as their eyes met. They barely registered anything as Thor was given permission to go to Nidavellir with Val, Rocket and Groot to forge a new weapon.

They were dismissed and Loki caught Thor in the hallway, "YOU! You listen to me your _Majesty_ " saying the word 'majesty' as some cuss word. "The stunt you tried to pull off at the elevator today, do not be surprised if I shave half of your precious hair off in your sleep, what's left of it anyway.."

"Easy there brother. I was just trying to help you develop a better work ethic. And on account of the recent revelations, I thought you could really use it" Thor replied calmly with a pleasant smile. "And honestly, I'm sure I'd pull of that hairstyle too"

Loki shook his head in disbelief, "You're being impossible. I liked you better when you were that witless oaf" he said as he sped forward.

But Loki knew things had to go back to normal if they wanted to see the end of this mission. Glancing through the window at the training arena, knowing Sif trained there all day, he made his way downstairs.

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Almost an hour had passed with Loki sitting in the observer stand of the training arena waiting to have a word with Sif who hadn't shown up yet. He was way past wondering what her reasons were as he was aimlessly looking at the people who were training.

"Hey Mr. Loki!" Peter entered the stands in his costume neck down.

"Look it's you again, just what I need right now" Loki said in a bored voice.

"What's wrong?"

"Sif. She didn't come" Loki said mindlessly.

Peter smiled nervously before saying,

"Woah I didn't know we were close enough to discuss bedroom details but alright. So... it's okay sometimes you may disappoint but you have to keep in mind that women are all different and complex and there is nothing-"

Loki's brows furrowed in confusion, "What?! No! For Norn's sake that's not what I meant. I was saying that she didn't come to train today. Why would you even- What's wrong with midgardian kids?" Loki gave Peter an incredulous look.

"Oh!" Peter paused to look at Loki "Sorry my bad!" He chuckled nervously trying to outlive Loki's judgemental gaze. Then he said something that only intensified it, "So Lady Sif….. more like _Lazy_ Sif" his giggles came out in nervous intervals.

Loki's features distorted into a mixture of disgust and apathy. "Just…stop talking"

"Yep. Okay." And he did.

"Aren't you too young to advise people on the arts of coupling anyway?"

"Aren't you too old to be alive?"

"No."

"Gotcha!"

"Why are you here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be training right now?"

"Oh yes! I was here to tell you that I just ran into Dr. Wilhelm, such a nice lady, very swee-"

"And?" Loki interrupted, not in the mood to hear appreciation of the woman he loathed.

"And she wants to see you in her office. She said something along the lines of working out a healthy work relationship with your colleague for the new mission"

Loki's hand shot up to his forehead. He started massaging this new headache that just recently formed while contemplating faking his death again.

 **A/N: What will happen when Loki and Sif interact before Aubrey? Will the Avengers be able to get hold of the aether? Will Peter ever be able to redeem himself in the eyes of Loki? Stay tuned to find out.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: All I will say is that here it goes nothing.**

 **Credit: The last part of the third scene was inspired by a_midgardian on tumblr.**

 **Shoutout: If you haven't checked out 'A Tale of the Trickster and the Spider' by MissBoaBoa yet then your current state of happiness is a living lie.**

 **Some Day for Loki: Part 1**

Loki sped through the halls and into Wilhelm's office in an utter daze of horror. He almost passed out when he saw Thor and Mantis' overenthusiastic faces, and beside Thor was sitting the golden lady Sif. As nervous and confused as he was.

' _Wow,'_ Loki thought to himself. ' _As if things weren't awkward enough before'_

Even Valkyrie was there, although she looked as annoyed as Loki.

"Look who's here for today's session brother," Thor exclaimed ecstatically gesturing for Loki to sit in the chair between Mantis and himself.

"Welcome Loki," Aubrey started. "Please take a seat so we may get started"

 _It was a bad day for Loki._

Wilhem pulled out a large folder from below her desk,

"Let me just inform you that as a result of your three hundred and ninety seven written complaints against me in which you have convinced the management that my methods of therapy are 'invasive,' 'scarring' and oh yes 'perverted', the management has requested me to grant you an out of these compulsive sessions. So this is our last one." Wilhem frowned at Loki from under her glasses as she banged the file on her desk.

"Well it's not my fault that you broke your pact of confidentiality just to get to me. I'm no idiot. I know there are rules and I know you like to break bad." Loki smiled a smile of thousand moons.

 _Maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all._

"What may I ask are the two ladies doing here?" Loki asked eyeing Valkyrie and Sif as he took a seat next to Mantis. Mantis held his hand.

"I invited Sif as today's guest because she is going to be working with you and- "

"And I'm here as an observer today because I'm being _forced_ to attend this stupid thing regarding my 'drinking problem'. Only that I don't understand how it is a problem to anyone." Val looked disgustingly at Thor who she knew had suggested this and then gave Wilhem a look which said 'I will kill you after a two days' notice'. Wilhem obviously wasn't fazed by the threat at all.

"Now let's get started. So Lady Sif, how will you describe your current relationship with Loki?"

"What relationship?" Sif responded much too quickly as her body took a defensive stance and she felt gooseflesh on the back of her neck. Loki muttered an inaudible _'here we go'_ under his breath.

"A _work_ relationship Your Ladyship." said Wilhem looking annoyed. Both Thor and Val fought the urge to smirk at each other and failed. This did not go unnoticed by either Sif or Loki.

"Oh, well… we have worked together in the past and it's all good is what I'll say" Sif said slightly nodding along to her own words."

"Mm hmm…" Wilhem nodded as she pretended to write something in her notebook when in reality she was doodling a giraffe, "And how would you describe Loki?"

"Prince of Asgard, God of Mischief, Master of Magic, also known as Silvertongue. Son of Allfather Odin and Queen Mother Frigga." Sif recited the answer she had memorized for her political relations class when she was a student on Asgard.

Wilhem rolled her eyes. Not even trying to hide her annoyance now. She had never been fired and Loki practically fired her. And so she had decided that she couldn't care less about him.

"I was thinking more along the lines of personal views about him but never mind. Now Loki's turn. Mantis what do you feel?"

"I feel fear….. and" Mantis' pupil's dilated "I feel love"

Loki coughed, "Yes I feel love, I love myself"

"No No! He lies for he is ashamed. It's romantic, sexual love" Mantis smiled as she looked at Sif, "For her" she pointed at her.

And then it was all chaos:

Wilhem looked at Loki from under her glasses and smiled a smile that said 'REVENGE'. Thor and Val looked at each other with knowing grins and then both slowly turned their heads creepily to smile smugly at Sif. Sif stared at Loki while he looked at Wilhem and Mantis with a feral expression.

"Get your hand off me you insect creature! You're not accurate at all. You're stupid and I hate you!" Loki shoved Mantis' hand away. Mantis made to touch Sif's shoulder but Sif stopped her with a death glare.

"Hey! Don't you dare talk to her like that. She has helped you so much. And she doesn't like you either" Wilhem chastised him.

"That's not true Doctor. I really like Mister Loki. He is just like me"

"Uhhh what did you just say? I'm like you?"

"Yes, you too are green and black and horny like me." Mantis smiled at Loki who looked at her with a horrified expression. Sif started looking in another direction as her cheeks heated up and Brunnhilde tried to control her laugh. Wilhem simply raised an eyebrow at Loki and shook her head condescendingly at him."

"Brother I understand your teenage hormones and all but now is really not the time." Thor looked concernedly at Loki.

"Thor no! She's….. what on the nine realms do you mean by that?"

"The horns you wear Loki! They look like my antenna" Mantis pointed towards the antennas on her head as her smile grew and clear mirth shone through her eyes.

Loki rolled his eyes and fell back in his chair feeling defeated, Wilhem closed her registere, Val fell down on the floor laughing and Sif let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She then noticed Thor staring hard at Mantis, a slight frown appearing on his face when he turned to her and said,

"I can't have another green-black loving sister right?"

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Loki reached the mechanics lab to find some pilot gear for his new mission. After the ordeal in the morning he though nothing could be worse. He had no idea what the day had in store for him.

To his utter dismay, Peter Parker and Agent Sam Wilson were there getting there suits updated too.

 _It was a bad day for Loki._

"Hey Loki!" Peter greeted him with a huge grin spread across his face as engineers around him tinkered with the suit he was wearing.

"Peter," Loki nodded back.

"I don't believe we have met," Sam interjected.

"I don't think we have," Loki curtly responded.

Sam nodded at Loki looking him up and down. "So, you like cows?"

"What? No I don't." Loki rebutted confused.

"Rhinos then"

"What?"

"Then how do you explain your horn fetish?"

"I personally think it's symbolic of the devil," Peter cut in, trying to diffuse Loki's anger at this clear depiction of mockery.

"So you like birds Agent Sam?" Loki rebutted completely ignoring Peter's attempt at civility between the two embodiments of sass.

Sam looked at Loki for a second before giving in, "Well played"

Loki smiled at this small victory and turned to one of the workers, "I need to take full pilot gear. Right away please. We're leaving today itself. Here's the slip"

"You're leaving today? Aww that's a shame man! I have a date tonight and I needed fashion advice. I was thinking of wearing a suit."

"I can't help you with that," Loki said as he received the box filled with all of the equipment"

"Well from what I've seen in SHIELD videos, you have quite an understanding of rocking suits"

"Yeah I know."

"And?"

"And I know for certain that you can't _rock_ that attire"

"Why?"

"Because it takes a certain level of class and style to do so. Now if you'll excuse me" Loki smirked and then sped past Peter and Sam as Sam raised his eyebrows and Peter looked offended. His smirk grew into a mischievous smile as he left the lab. That Peter kid was slowly growing on him.

 _Maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all._

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Sif waited for the elevator door to open as she reminisced the events of the day. She was going to the terrace where their space ship was being given double checks. They were leaving in under an hour. She and Loki were going with Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis in the same ship as per the latest orders and she couldn't be more grateful. Right now, being alone with Loki was the last thing she wanted. She was confused.

She hadn't expected Loki's therapy session would happen to be so… revealing. After hours of retrospection, she was convinced that she did not fully believe Mantis. She was after all dull and slow. And Loki was far too strong for her to accurately read. Loki wasn't attracted to her or she'd have known. A woman always knows. But then, with Loki you never know. She didn't even understand her own feelings now. She had definitely forgiven Loki after he saved them all in the last battle. And she was still embarrassed about her actions that followed the battle. Did he think she was leading him on? Wasn't she leading him on? Why was she leading him on?

Yep, she was definitely confused.

The elevator door opened to reveal six familiar faces. Shuri, Sergeant Barnes, Rocket, Drax, Groot and of course, Loki. But this time she was expecting him to be there. No surprises there. She was just glad that there were others in the elevator too. They were all clearly going to see there friends off, except Shuri. She nodded at all of them in greeting. Loki, Bucky and Shuri returned the nod while Rocket just winked at her. Drax stood still, practising his skill of invisibility.

"Are you going to accompany us Princess Shuri?" Sif asked Shuri, genuinely curious.

"Aww no Lady Sif. They just need some help with the space ship that's all." Shuri said, "And I respond to Shuri just as well" she chuckled.

Sif smiled at her and gave her a brief nod again, "Yes Shuri"

A minute was passed in silence before Loki spoke up, "Listen, Sif? What Mantis said in- "

"I know I know! Don't worry. Empaths aren't always accurate. Jotuns are really hard beings to empath anyway and-"

"I AM GROOT!"

"I'm sorry Sir I don't mean no disrespect but she IS a bit dull," Sif politely responded to Groot's objection.

"I…am GROOT"

"What do you mean by she could even read Ego?"

"I am Groot"

"A celestial? That can't be right! There is no empath that powerful. You are lying."

"Wait! You know groot?" Rocket asked Sif, confused by her ability to understand Groot.

"Of course we understand Groot. We went to school." Loki interjected.

"So how many languages do you know?"

"Over a thousand language excluding the derivatives." Said Sif matter-of-factly.

"Yeah so Quill _was_ right," said Rocket.

"About what exactly?" asked Loki raising an eyebrow.

"That Asgardians were prudish nerds." said Rocket and both he and Drax started laughing. He raised a hand to high five Bucky who didn't respond so he just hit the backside of his metal arm. The elevator door opened and Bucky got out after patting Rocket lightly on the head. Though his face was still expressionless.

"Easy there Raccoon! You're talking about my motherland" Sif said sternly.

Rocket and Drax's laughing slowed down. But Loki just _had_ to interject now didn't he?

"I'm not Asgardian anyway," he shrugged his shoulders.

"No? Then where are you from?" asked Drax.

"Originally I'm from Jotunheim"

"You're from Jotunheim? Then why are you white?"

"Oh my God Drax you can't just ASK people why they're white!" Rocket looked at Drax with anger and disappointment.

All went silent for a minute before Shuri fished her phone out of her pocket and said,

"This is so becoming a meme"

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The elevator door opened to reveal a vast terrace. Sif, Loki and others got out to see the middle-sized vessel they'd be travelling in. The dark blue of the vibranium with purple lights flashing around it looked beautiful. Shuri immediately went to work with the engineers to resolve the problem while Rocket, Drax and Groot headed towards the directions Gamora, Quill and Mantis were sitting.

"So, it's the new hero Loki"

Loki turned around to find Bruce Banner standing and made a disgusting face as he used his tablet to scan Loki's eyes. Then he started filling in his details.

"Your Ladyship," he nodded at Sif before he did the same with her. She nodded back.

"What do you think you're doing?" Loki asked.

"I'm..uhhh scientisting" Bruce smiled at Loki. "It's nice to finally meet you in person Lady Sif"

"The pleasure is mine Dr. Banner. Thor has told me so much about you." Sif courtesied to him the traditional Asgardian style.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have to research Vision's mind stone or something?" Loki asked him, not enjoying his company even a bit.

"Yeah but they needed a scientist on the ship and after what happened last time, you guys can use Hulk as a back up if that again happens"

"That's great Doctor. I look forward to be working with you," Sif said to cover for Loki's smug shoulder shrug.

"Likewise. Hey why don't you two work on that bench while they're giving the ship the final touches?" Bruce directed them towards a small bench which could only fit three thin people. When Loki and Sif sat on the opposite edges, Bruce shimmied his way in and sat in the middle. Loki looked at Bruce squarely because of this.

"What? I'm not allowed to sit now? I've been working all morning okay?"

Loki rolled his eyes while Sif shifted uncomfortably. A few minutes passed in silence.

"Hey Loki?"

"What?"

"I have been thinking about this ever since we came back from Sakaar you know.. And I never got a chance to ask this-"

Loki raised an eyebrow in question.

"How exactly did you get the access codes to Grandmaster's orgy ship? I mean… it was a little fishy and no one really noticed it at first but now that I have-"

Loki was caught off guard. He looked at Sif, who pretended to have not heard anything and was studying her bracer as if it was the first time she had seen one. He then looked at Bruce who was looking at Loki with real confusion and concern in his eyes. Loki's nostrils flared at him and his eyes actually turned red. Bruce's eyes widened at this.

"I _stole_ the codes you witless mortal, you don't need to get any thoughts"

"Hey! Hey! I'm not judging you okay? I just wanted to know more about my former employer that's all," Bruce raised his hands in surrender. Loki looked at him with the ferality of a wolf about to devour it's prey. And he obviously got uncomfortable.

"For what it's worth, it must have taken a certain level of… _skill_ to convince that crazy man to be your Sugar Daddy so I'm actually complimenting you. You did what you had to do to survive you know? That's totally cool man! I don't know what you're so angry about. Why do you always have to be a diva? You're such a drama queen," Bruce said agitated.

If Loki wasn't as perceptive as he was, he would've missed the ghost of smile that passed through Sif's features before she went back to being ignorant of her surroundings. Loki had never felt so out there in his life.

"You could NOT have chosen a better time for this you idiot." He turned and brought his face extremely close to Bruce. "You'll pay for this."

"Are you- Are you threatening me? Are you threatening _me?_ This is bad… this is- this is making me really ANGRY," Bruce's eyes flared as he looked Loki straight in the eye and started shivering.

Loki felt blood and life leave his body as he jumped up from the bench and away from Banner. He held out his hands in front of him as he looked at Bruce with terror in his eyes.

"No no no no Bruce everything's fine. The sun is getting down. The sun is getting real low." He gestured at Sif to get help as he tried to hold Banner off, at the same time planning an escape route.

But…his fear melted into confusion when Bruce started laughing….followed by Sif. It took him a minute before he realized that he had been tricked. Oh how he wanted to strangle Bruce to death with all his 7 PHDs.

"It's not funny," he said as he noticed Sif. Laughing. All wrinkles around her eyes, dimples on her cheeks, even her nose was slightly wrinkled as she mouthed an inaudible 'sorry' with a shrug of her shoulders. She looked at him and started laughing again, harder. It felt like it was after years that he had seen her laugh. It _was_. And Loki was the reason for it. He had forgotten it sounded so pleasing. Or was it just happening right now?

Loki had to maintain his stance. His claim to take offence. His hatred towards Banner and disappointment towards Sif for laughing at such a stupid joke. So he fought hard against his urge to smile at Sif.

And if Sif wasn't as perceptive as she was, she would've missed the ghost of smile that passed through Loki's features before he went back to being offended again.

"You _will_ pay for this Banner," he said before he headed towards the ship.

 **A/N: This chapter is in two parts because it was too long. It originally had six scenes in it. The second part will be uploaded tomorrow itself. Sorry for the late update.**

 **Awesome people review. Be awesome! :D**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Here is the second part of the chapter. Delivered hot and fresh and right on time at your doorstep.**

 **I know I am late but a very happy birthday to the amazing missygrace, who is the best reader an author can dream of.**

 **Credit: The early part of the first scene has been co-written by NotYourTypicalFanboy. If you admired the descriptions then he is the guy to thank.**

 **Trivia: It's quite an overlooked detail Sif was actually the one who had taken the aether (reality stone) to the Collector in Thor: The Dark World along with Volstagg. It is canon and not something I came up with.**

Loki stood in the X6811 ship facing the large window, looking at the stars, with a hint of smile on his face. But it wasn't the fading twinkle of those stars that were making him smile. It was another smile, and the twinkle of someone else's eyes. He just wasn't able to get his mind off Sif's laughter. He reminisced how unusual his reaction had been, how very new, how very different than how he was trained to be.

It was as if someone had pressed pause on time. The moment had blasted into eternity as everything that was not Lady Sif sublimed into a blur and every sound that was not her laughter ceased to exist. There stood Loki, transfixed, watching her laugh, hearing the music of her chuckles. He was confused at first. He practically grew up around her, then why hadn't he noticed this before? This, whatever this was. She would have laughed around him before. How come he never noticed it?

There was something epiphanic about it. This was not just another humble response of a stag comment in the Castle of Asgard in the presence of high ranking officials and their diplomacy or the nervous giggle of making an acquaintance of raw bloom of masculinity (as if Sif would ever do that) or not a smirk turning into a throaty chortle when somebody doubted her abilities or compared her to men. Nothing of that sort. This was a laugh. A genuine laugh.

Now Loki knew that Sif had a beautiful smile, as he had seen many eligible suitors write ballads and sonnets upon that smile, and upon that of any desirable maid. And, he wasn't blind. Her smile was perfect. Dreamy. Her jawline broad, her teeth well sculpted and symmetrical and her full lips a rosy pink. Her smile could be regarded as the textbook definition of aesthetics.

But her laugh.

Loki was trained in the art of decoding a person's body language and deciphering a subject's true intentions and nature, a skill rather underwhelming to the brawn headed Asgardians, but came in handy while interrogating prisoners and the accused. Therefore, he had the eye of a keen observer and an analytical mind. And his observation had stumped him. Sif's consequentially frowned forehead because of the way her face muscles contorted, her almost closed and stretched eyes, her slightly wrinkled nose and flaring nostrils, her puffed cheeks, her stretched lips, her mouth agape and her marble teeth haphazardly peeking from behind; accompanied by a non-sonorous, quite 'un-lady like' throaty sounds and some shoulder movement. A bard would never describe a woman's laugh like that. But her laugh, was so pure and true with a child-like innocence. How could something be so genuine.

It was the kind of laughter one could stand and bask in for hours. It could make a man want to give up everything just to see Sif laugh for one last time. It could make a person forget all his sorrows and laugh along.

If her smile could intoxicate the strongest of men, her laughter could sober him up. Forever.

And once again, after his last visit the to the New York Sanctum, Loki found himself asking the same question,

"What kind of sorcery was this?"

"I never noticed you stargazing before," the familiar voice of Lady Warcraft broke in his muse.

"Maybe because you haven't noticed at all me before," Loki smiled at Sif, realizing the flirtatious undertones of the comeback moments after it was said.

Sif rolled her eyes, but she also smiled. "I was actually here to apologise for laughing at you"

"You? Apologies? When did _that_ happen?" Loki couldn't help his cockiness, specially when he was nervous. Talk about a defence mechanism.

Sif simply shook her head at his pseudo insult. Suddenly, it felt like they were young in Asgard again. Back when Loki was just a trickster, back when he hadn't discovered his heritage, back when he wasn't broken down to monstrosity, back to his verbal mischief Sif once found exponentially annoying. But now the same made her feel back at home,

"Aaaand you're back! Who in the nine realms named you silvertongue when none of your sentences end without a jab"

"I bet it was it was the women of Asgard," Loki smirked a benign smirk and slightly raised his shoulders in a mock display of innocence, "Just saying…" his demeanour now had an air of smugness and his smile was overpowering. And when for a split second he darted his tongue out to moisten his lips, Sif wondered if it was possible that he was right. But on the outside, she couldn't let him win this.

So Sif rolled her eyes for the thousandth time that day. She was no novice at this game.

"Hi! I'm a woman. From Asgard. And as far as I remember, no such thing happened."

"And who's fault is that?" Loki raised an eyebrow at her and smirked. The apparent double meaning in his words and his sheer attempt to flirt so openly made her glare on the outside. But internally, her stomach did three back flips and a somersault, such gymnastics…

Yes, she was caught off guard. And blood gushed to her cheeks.

"It is impossible to have an educated discussion with you isn't it? Play your word games with someone else trickster. I've got work to do." Sif turned and started walking in another direction.

"My Lady, wait!" Sif turned around to see a very offended Loki.

"Is this how you talk to your Prince? Such temperament doesn't suit a young maiden like you." Loki shook his head condescendingly as he took steps. But his tone had changed and so did his body language. His body language got slightly… _feminine._ Where had Sif seen this before? Then it hit her. And she burst into laughter.

"You still do quite an imitation of my mother" she said still laughing, remembering the times when all her friends used to tease her this way. These always used to end Sif beating the boys up. Once it had resulted in Fandral losing his front canine tooth, thankfully it wasn't a permanent one.

"Your mother _was_ an interesting lady" Loki chuckled, himself remembering all the times he had met Sif's mother. An exact opposite of Sif, flattering him and Thor up in every way possible. No wonder Sif had grown up to be so hot headed.

"Tell _me_ about it. All mother wanted me to do was dress up and look pretty. I was always so jealous of your mother. If it weren't for her support, then a kitchen knife would've been the only blade I'd have gotten to use," Sif's laughter had faded into a light smile as nostalgia filled her heart. She was aware that she had accidentally taken the conversation on a different, treacherous road.

"Yeah she… was a special woman," Sif heard Loki say, his voice had suddenly gotten low and his tone changed from playful to melancholic but he was still smiling.

Sif didn't know what to say next so she only bit her lip, and then she noticed something she hadn't before.

"Your cape, it's yellow" she smiled and looked Loki in the eyes. "You chose the colour yellow in remembrance of your mother didn't you?"

"Well that and… also, it suits me," he let out an empty laugh which didn't reach his eyes. She wondered if he had ever gotten a chance to talk about his mother after she transgressed to Valhalla. She recalled that he wasn't allowed to the funeral, then he had faked his death and then…

Maybe this was the time.

Sif's smile grew wider as her hand instinctively reached to touch the snake shaped copper hair clip she always wore, "This was a gift from your mother too. She gave it to me for our victory in Vanaheim. Others used to give me daggers and swords and whatnot but your mother, your mother always used to present me with one weapon _and_ one ornament. She had her own way of reminding me that I was beautiful."

"Well she wasn't wrong," Loki tried to change the subject. Communicating emotions had never been his forte.

And Sif allowed that. She didn't consider herself close enough for him to confide, no one was. So she replied with a careless 'You flatter me, your Grace.'

But to her surprise, Loki spoke up.

"What were your last words to her Sif?"

Sif thought for a second and then smiled, "As you wish my Queen." She pressed her right hand over her chest imitating her actions as she had said those words.

Loki nodded. All evidences of mirth lost from his face now as he gulped inaudibly. It looked like he was trying to hold back emotions as he looked at Sif.

"The last thing I said to her was that she was not my mother... I didn't mean it," tears strung the back of his eyes as he recalled that moment. That moment of ignorance, of anger. The way Frigga's eyes had watered, how she had disappeared before he could correct himself. "I really did not mean it," he said as he looked towards the ground, his eyes cast down.

"I'm sure she knew that. And- if she knew you for the man you have become, I dare say she'd have been proud." Loki's eyes shot up to meet those of Sif at her last sentence. There was some sort of plea, weakness in the ever proud blue-green orbs.

Sif had never seen Loki so vulnerable in her life. Loki was himself surprised at his shameless display of emotions. His rational part of the brain told him he had already given too much today. But his intuition told him that he needed to make this negotiation right now, this might be his only chance.

"Will you promise me one thing Sif?"

Sif looked at Loki with questioning eyes.

"When you make it Valhalla, will you tell my mother that I did not mean what I said" his eyes bore into her and sent shivers right to her heart. She felt different under this gaze of his. She felt important. More important than she had ever felt.

"I would promise you that but, she'd rather have you say it yourself"

Loki let out a hollow laugh, "And what my Lady, makes you think that _I_ will make it to Valhalla?"

Loki's demeanour changed as he forced his confidence to return. He meant for this to be a joke, to diffuse the atmosphere of his vulnerability, to reinstate power. But Sif saw right through it.

Sif saw right through his fake indifference. Saw right through his attempt at agonising himself. For the first time in her life, she saw the broken inside to his cold outside. And a rage fuelled inside her when she realized that she had misunderstood him all along. She never was the friend she had claimed to be. She had failed as a friend.

He was still smiling. After risking his life for all of them, after being accepted by everyone as an ally, after regaining Thor's trust, he still thought he wasn't going to make it to the heaven of the brave. Why? Because he was not Asgardian by birth? No. Because he thought himself to be a monster. Because of his birth, and because of his actions that followed torture and disillusionment. And he was smiling. Dimples and everything. That treacherous trickster. Ever the illusionist.

"What are you thinking?" Loki asked while she just stood there, drinking in his hoax. Trying to react.

"Sif? Are you yet alive?" His voice felt heavy with the false mirth he was feigning. He waved his hands in front of her to get a response. More and more rage was building inside Sif. She didn't know what to do. How to react. So what happened next happened on impulse.

In one giant leap, Sif crossed the distance between them and grabbed Loki face with both her hands. Before Loki had time to think, Sif pulled his face close to her own and pressed her lips into his. It felt like the time had stopped as she kissed him naïvely, but passionately, not giving up at his lack of response, not yet.

Loki froze on the spot. But the feeling of someone's touch, her fingers caressing his face, the feather light feeling of her lips against his, intoxicated his body, urging his eyes shut. He couldn't move until he registered what was actually happening. And when it finally dawned on him that he was being kissed, that he was being kissed by Lady Sif, his hands instinctively rose up to grab Sif's waist. But yet, they stopped inches away from her sides. The ethical part of his brain _still_ warning him, reminding him how such an inappropriate action might offend the Shieldmaiden. But when Sif ran her thumb over his upper cheek bone and slightly deepened the kiss, hormones got the better of him.

So just when Sif's senses returned, just when she became aware of what she was doing, just when she was about to pull away, Loki enclosed his long arms around the curve of Sif's waist and pulled her into him. Pressing the warrior's sculpted form hard against his own, his one hand travelled up into her hair as he kissed her back with unimagined fervour. His insistent mouth parting her willing lips.

Sif suddenly started feeling light headed as he took charge of the kiss, deepening it more and more every second as everything around them started drowning into a pool of nothingness, when everything that wasn't their passionate entwining of lips lost it's meaning.

Loki tugged at her hair and tilted her face for better access as he pulled her even closer, raising her on her tiptoes to cover for the height difference. His other hand holding her strongly against himself, flushed against his body, with not even a hairline of distance to separate them. Her body fit so perfectly against him.

Loki frowned as he felt himself get lost in the kiss. Sif's soft lips felt so good. Sif let out on involuntary moan as he suckled in her lower lip urged him further on. Sif hands left Loki's face to explore his neck, his sharp intake of breath told Sif he had touched a sensitive spot as she ran her thumb behind his earlobe.

Loki's palm then pressed against the small of her back as his other hand left hair and cupped her cheek, he ran his thumb to and fro over her ear causing her to arch into him. Sif felt her limbs melt as her knees gave away. If Loki weren't holding her so firmly, she'd have stumbled to the ground. She held on to his shoulders as their lips danced against each other, their tongues occasionally teasing each other. Fully giving into their urges, into the tension that had been building for weeks now. They kissed with such talent and fervent desire, that in a matter of minutes they were breathless.

Loki slowly pulled away, his eyes still closed as he took a moment to steady himself. The impact of the kiss contorting his features in the subtlest of ways. Sif still clung to him as the only solid thing in a dizzy, swaying world. For half a minute they both caught their breath, breathing heavily, still close enough to feel each other's breaths.

When she had finally regained her composure, Sif stepped away from Loki to stand at a distance a lady would maintain. A lady like herself. She looked up at Loki's face who was staring at her with a softness, a surprise she had never seen before. He tried hard to look into her eyes but she noticed how his gaze fell upon her now swollen lips every other second. But even she couldn't help but ogle as his tongue once again darted out to lick his lips again, as if trying to savour that kiss one last time. Somehow, that gave her immense confidence.

"I uhh…" Loki's voice was husky as he started to speak. He adjusted his throat before continuing in what sounded like a whisper, "I wasn't expecting this"

"And who's fault is that?" Sif fired back and offered him a smug smile as she rose her shoulders in a display of mock innocence. Using his own words against him. He watched, surprised at her wit, as she turned and walked out of the air chamber.

As she turned, he allowed himself to smile a bashful smile, like that of a young maiden. But to his utter embarrassment, she turned around to look at him one last time.

 _Maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all._

 _xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Loki was still trying to get over what had just fared when his wrist watched beeped signaling that there was someone calling him in the monitor room.

 _Peter._

Loki made way to the monitor room in a state of Euphoria. He pressed the receive button to take the call and unsurprisingly, Peter's face appeared on the screen.

"Hey Loki!"

"Hello Peter."

"So listen at first I was really upset at your rude behaviour but then I realized that you were just roasting me. And honestly, I'm so glad that we're on that stage of our relationship right now you know? Even Ned has never done that!"

"Who's Ned?"

"Look at you getting all jealous!"

"I merely asked a question.."

"Don't worry Loki! I love you both equally"

Loki sighed at the boy's optimism. He thought it was better to let him enjoy his delusions.

"What is it that you wanted again?" Loki now noticed that Peter was wearing a suit. It was that date.

"I wanted you tell me how I look?" asked Peter as he smoothed his tie.

"You look with your eyes," Loki said, feigning ignorance.

"No as in handsome, nice, attractive etc."

"Etc."

"-_-"

Loki laughed at the face Peter made. It was looking as if he had hid a frog in his mouth.

"My apologies, Man of Spiders. You look pretty"

"Umm thanks….I guess," Peter thought it wasn't much but it was something. Maybe 'pretty' was a manly adjective in Asgard.

"You didn't let me complete. You look pretty…. pretty hilarious," Loki chuckled once again.

"LOKI! You're in an unusually good mood today. Has something happened?"

"Specify 'something'"

"I don't know dude you're glowing. TELL ME!"

"There is nothing to tell" Loki's wrist watch beeped again. "Oh you 'd have to excuse me now, we're here," Loki rushed out of the monitor room.

"WAIT! First tell me what happened COME ON Loki!" Peter called from behind as phone screen went off.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"We need the aether back," Sif said as she and Loki stood face to face with the collector.

"I am not going to be the one who does the retuning," said the white haired Collector in his jarring honey-like voice.

"The aether belongs to Asgardian Crown. It was given to you for safekeeping. You hadn't bought it. And you promised to return it on demand," Sif sensed that the Collector was either hostile or had been compromised. She signaled Loki to signal the Guardians and Banner for back up.

"I made no such promises. However," the Collector now turned his face to look at Loki directly in the eye, "someone else did." The last three words sounded deeper.

Realization dawned on both Loki and Sif as the lab around them turned into ash, dust and destruction. The Collector was chained and muzzled in a box metres away from them.

The illusion faded and there he was. The colour of his skin a daunting purple. And in his hand was the famed Infinity Gauntlet which shone purple and red.

"I think you have something that's mine Asgardian"

 _It was definitely a bad day for Loki._

 **A/N: So this was it. Both my favourite and least favourite chapter. I would really love to see your views on it so please don't forget to review.**

 **Because'**

 **Awesome people review. Be Awesome :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Hey everyone! I know it's been a very long time since I posted but here I am again. I can't apologize for the delay enough. I had just started college and was very busy.. I still am. I also started a new poetry account and wrote a whole poetry book hence the extra-long unforgivable delay. However, returning to this fic was always an eventuality. So here is the new chapter. It's not much but I hope that you like it.**

 **Random Good News: Loki is most probably getting his own series and he'll be played by Tom Hiddleston. Talk about ecstasy.**

 **Worst Brother**

"Open your eyes Loki! LOKI!," Thor's faint voice was ringing in Loki's ears. He did not know where he was. He had woken up he did not know how many hours ago all alone in what looked like a Midgardian hospital room and had quickly fallen asleep again. He somehow managed to notice that his skin had turned his Jotun blue. There were wires and pipes all around him. From context he deduced that he was in the Avengers' facility and was given tranquilizers to subdue the pain from his injuries…. _injuries inflicted by Thanos._

He slowly brought himself to open his eyes with much difficulty. Thor's frowning face was what he first saw. He was leaning over Loki. Then he saw Nat, Bruce, Steve, Tony and Maria Hill around him.

"Loki how are you feeling? Do you remember what happened?" asked Bruce who, Loki noticed, had a long gash of scar across his face. Loki tried to remember how he had gotten it. Then he remembered everything.

It all had happened so fast. Loki could barely register what had come to pass when Thanos grabbed Sif by the neck. He vaguely remembered noticing Sif trigger the alarm that sent for the Guardians and Bruce before Thanos slammed the power stone into Sif's head and asked Loki for the Tesseract. Sif had told Loki to sacrifice her… and Loki had. Thanos then used the space stone and out of the blue he had grabbed Thor and threatened to kill him too. Loki did know what came upon him as he couldn't see Thor die and decided to give up the Tesseract only to see the apparition of Thor vanish. He was the trickster. How could Loki be tricked like that? How could Hulk be defeated like that?

"He was- he was," Loki did not know why he was panting. He struggled to find his voice.

"Loki come on! Tell us you know where Gamora is. What happened out there?" Nick Fury asked him feigning confidence.

"Sif? Thor SIF!" Loki was still panting.

"Sif is fine brother. She is unconscious. Everyone else is unconscious. The level of injuries you both have sustained have never been known by any Asgardian before you HAVE to tell us what happened."

Loki gulped. He was the one who had stolen the Tesseract. He knew everyone would kill him on learning the news. But he also knew he couldn't hide it anymore. It _was_ his fault. He _did_ deserve to die for it.

"Thor he has the Tesseract" he somehow managed to articulate.

"That's impossible! The Tesseract was destroyed on Asgard by Surtur. You're delusional." Thor looked around at the rest of them.

Something changed in Tony and Steve's eyes as realization dawned on them.

"You son of a bitch you stole didn't you?" Tony looked at Loki disbelievingly, with a dangerous rage he was never known for.

Fury eyed Loki with anger, "You better have an excellent excuse for this one because I swear to God if you don't then I'll kill you myself."

The shame in Loki's eyes and his silence answered the question. Thor stood up straight and stepped back with hurt and realization in his eyes.

"You really are the worst brother."

 **A/N: So there it is. It's not much but there is much more to come. The real showdown is waiting. Another chapter will be probably up within a week. I'll take it slow and steady from here and update as often as I can.**

 **Don't worry there will be a little more Sifki interaction in the coming chapter.**

 **Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter. I had never been happier before reading those fantastic reviews.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: I say it with a heavy heart that this is going to be the last chapter of the story. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing it and I am extremely grateful for the kind of response that it got. The fic was originally intended to be a bit longer but I later realized that it was better to end the story at this point and leave the rest to the sequel I was planning to write after Avengers 4 released. I have a feeling that we won't be satisfied with its ending either.**

 **Time and You**

Sif knew she had to see Loki as soon as she had regained consciousness. Despite Thor himself telling her what a traitor he was, despite seeing her best friend broken, despite knowing that all of this was again Loki's fault. She _had_ to see him. The Loki she now knew wasn't the Loki who had tried to kill her, or who had tried to subjugate earth, this Loki was the trickster she once knew. Annoying, sarcastic, wicked but good. This was the Loki who risked his life to gain the Frost Giant's trust, who rescued Asgardians from Ragnarok, who gave up the Tesseract to save _her_ life. She didn't know why he stole it in the first place but she had to see for herself what really had really fared. She had to hear it from his own mouth. And today, she was determined to know _everything,_ from beginning to end, becausesomething within her told her that she wasn't going to get another shot at this.

So it was late at night when she left her hospital room and made way to Loki's. She passed several doors peeping through their windows to see if Loki was in one of them. She finally found him at the farthest end of the doorway. It was for the first time that she saw a glimpse of his blue Jotun form. A part of her reminded her that she should've been repulsed by the sight of their mortal enemies, of monsters they were taught to fear, to hate all their lives. But she felt nothing of the sort. She felt… _fascinated_ by it, strangely drawn to it, almost needing it.

She slowly opened the door, trying her best to not make any noise and entered. There he was. Cerulean eyelids closed, a hint of crease between the eyebrows, cheeks covered with beautiful silver ridges, black hair cradling his glacial face. He looked pristine and calm like this. His long eyelashes brushed over his high cheekbones, his long neck slightly rose and fell with each breath, and his _lips_. The way they had brushed over her own lips, the way he made her feel when he clutched tightly at her waist, the way she had felt his chest over his shirt, the chest that now lay exposed, the chest that was now coloured azure and ivory right down to his waist. She felt a cool energy radiating from him and he smelled of perspiration. He looked _surreal._ He felt surreal. Honestly, with all that blue, who could ever believe that he wasn't destined to be king? This man, this _god,_ oozed royalty. Sif just stood there, drinking in his form as if it was the last time.

"I didn't expect you'd come to see me."

His eyes had opened. He wasn't sleeping. He was looking at her, directly in the eyes. His expression betrayed his words. There was no surprise in his voice. He knew she'd come to see him. And if he didn't, he should have.

"I think you owe me an explanation."

"I think I owe everyone an explanation," he half chuckled but the smile never reached his blood red eyes. And then his expression changed into one of pain and guilt.

"I don't want you seeing me like this."

"Why?" Was all Sif could ask. And she knew Loki would know just what she was asking.

"I know you all hate me for it.. Thor certainly does." He sighed at his last words. _He_ was the one who was supposed to hate. Thor was the stupid, blind, loving one.

"I wasn't going to steal it. But you know it. I am a selfish bastard of a Frost Giant whose basic instinct is self preservation." He gestured at his body as she shot Sif a painful smirk,

"This is who I am."

"Self Preservation?" Sif scoffed. "Was that what you were thinking when you told Thanos that you wouldn't give him the Tesseract even if he kills you?"

"But I did give him that"

"Yes to save MY life. No matter how much I plead you to not do it. That's not selfish."

"Yes. That is. I put the life of the person I care before the whole universe. You know it's selfish."

When the gravity of those words finally settled in Sif's mind, she found that she, celebrated warrior, Shieldmaiden, had a hint of tears in her eyes. Contrasted with Loki's eyes who had tears running down his cheeks and washing his face. Even that looked so beautiful.

"I have got to make this right Sif." He finally broke the heavy silence between them. "And I think I know how."

Before Sif could ask Loki what it was that he was thinking, someone gently knocked on the door. A second later, Peter's face appeared from behind the door.

"Wow you're blue."

"I _was_ expecting to see you," Loki appeared amused despite being so weak.

"I am sorry my senses were tingling real strong around here so I decided to check. Am I interrupting something?" Peter said eyeing Sif and looked at Loki suggestively. Both Loki and Sif fought the urge to roll their eyes. Peter had a way of lightening the mood even in such intense situations.

"Actually-" Sif started but was interrupted by Loki.

"No you're not. I was just going to tell Sif what I am going to do next. You may as well assist her with helping me."

"Me? Why me?" Peter asked genuinely curious.

"Whatever it is," Sif half scoffed. "I hope it doesn't involve faking your death again."

"Well…" Loki's look of mock guilt almost rattled the composure Sif had fought to maintain for so long.

"Are you jesting with me now trickster?" Sif could actually feel anger riling up inside her. Did Loki actually believe that Thor would fall for that again?

"Loki I really don't think it's a good idea." Said Peter.

"Both of you _listen_ to me first. Revenge and love are great motivators. Thor's powers are best fueled by rage. If someone he loves dies, he becomes unstoppable. He'll forget my follies and will want to avenge my death. And I know he won't stop until he does. But if I stay here, I wouldn't be of any help because no one would trust me."

"I can't lie to Thor. It's treason." Sif said determinedly. Although she knew that lying to Thor wasn't why she was vary of this idea.

"You committed treason against me once, and then again against Odin. It's not like I'm asking you to bend your moral compass." Loki looked at Sif seriously as his nostrils slightly flared. "Or wait maybe I am…. After all it's Thor this time. He's always different."

Sif glared back at Loki. How dare he say that to her? How dare he question her intentions? Her rage gave way to words she hadn't entirely planned on saying.

"How dare you take that tone with me?" She started, furious as ever.

"I am not letting you wander off into the dark realms alone with a mad Titan on your trail when you're this weak. But no, as always you'll misjudge those who love you."

"Those who _what?_ " Peter's head shot up. Sif was panting. Loki was looking at Sif as if she'd suddenly turned red, which wasn't entirely untrue.

And then there was silence for a good ten seconds. The implication of what she said had now dawned on her but she didn't really bother about clarification at the moment.

"This is how it's gonna go." Loki's eyes were cast down. "I'll create my double who'll appear dead. He'll be tangible but both of you have to make sure that they don't do a post mortem on the body. I know it'd hard for you both to trust me but you can and have to get Strange in on this. He has the time stone so he'll see I don't intend to betray this time. He'll also know how to contact me if need be. But no one else shall know." He said looking up at Peter. Peter was about to say something when Sif spoke up again.

"I said, I am _not_ going to go through with this." She said staring Loki straight in the eyes.

"You won't Lady Sif?" Loki stood up now. Clad only in a pair of dark green trousers before his vest and armour appeared on his body and his coloured restored to that of his Asgardian skin.

"Not even for Asgard." He stood in front of her and looked down at her, more intently than he had ever looked at anything before. His gaze bore into her person melting whatever bits of a warrior's resolve she had within her. And then, she gave in.

"For Asgard," she said pressing a hand to her chest. Loki looked at her for a second after and then his lips came crashing down at her. Sif kissed him back with an urgency. Both trying to savour each moment yet trying to overpower each other. It was as if they were battling a war out right there.

Peter coughed way too loudly. "Get a room you guys."

Loki and Sif broke away, both slightly breathless.

"Where are you gonna go then?" Peter asked him.

"Anywhere I can find help." Loki made his way towards the low window which opened on the top of the roof of the room below. His body double appeared on the hospital bed. "Don't die you two." He chuckled.

Both Sif and Peter nodded, staring at Loki's back as he climbed onto the rooftop. He stared at his feet for a few seconds before turning and looking at Sif.

"It all depends on time now. Time, and you." He shifted his gaze to Peter. " _All_ of you."

 _What did he mean by that?_

He had now turned to Sif again. His head was down and he was looking up at her sideways. The way he used to look at her before asking her to dance with him in a banquet when they were young. He'd changed so much, _so much_ since then.

"Sif, forgive me for my behaviour earlier. I have a habit of misjudging people I love."

And then he vanished into thin air.

 **A/N: And there it is. My first fanfiction. I hope you all enjoyed it. I had an amazing time writing it. This was a great learning experience. If you go back to the first chapter and compare it to the last chapter you will find how much I grew as a writer. This wouldn't have been possible without you.**

 **If you guys want me to, or if Avengers 4 leaves us crying and doesn't give us our Loki back, I will write a sequel. Otherwise I plan to write Sifki oneshots so I'll finally have an outlet for all the day dreaming I do.**

 **Until then, goodbye. May the God of Mischief bless you all.**


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